By Christian Tsoumou

BRAZZAVILLE, June 8 (Reuters) - Former "Ninja" rebels led by a renegade pastor in Congo Republic burned their weapons late on Thursday in a ceremony meant to underline their commitment to peace in the central African country.

The rebels, named after ancient Japanese warriors, fought an insurgency against Congo's government in the late 1990s and although a peace deal was signed in 2003 sporadic violence has plagued the Pool region where they are based ever since.

"By this symbolic act of burning arms we want to mark in front of everybody our determination to work for peace in Pool and across the country," the rebels' leader, Pastor Frederic Ntoumi, said at the ceremony.

"We are going into constructive opposition," said Ntoumi, who was appointed in May as a junior minister in charge of the promotion of peace by Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

While the last major clashes were in 2003 in Pool -- a southern region between the capital Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe Noire -- Ninjas had continued to roam the region, robbing civilians and hijacking trains to the oil-rich coast.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which had been providing medical aid and safe water, pulled out of Pool last year while freight and passenger traffic through the region all but ground to a halt during the troubles.

Ntoumi arrived at the ceremony, in Pool's main town of Kinkala, some 80 km (50 miles) south of Brazzaville, dressed in a suit and open shirt and flanked by around 30 heavily armed militia fighters.

Around 100 weapons were burned, including Kalashnikovs as well as anti-tank and ground-to-air missiles.

Prime Minister Isidore Mvouba, government members, religious leaders and diplomats were at the event, as well as opposition leader and former premier Bernard Kolelas, cleared of war crimes charges and spared the death sentence by Nguesso in 2005.

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