(Adds military source on death toll, power supply cut)

By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Tuareg-led rebels in northern Niger launched twin attacks overnight on the main regional town of Agadez and on an electricity company supplying uranium mines, triggering clashes with the army which killed two civilians.

The Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said on Friday it had targeted a fuel depot used by the army in Agadez and an electricity depot in Tchirozérine, 75 km (47 miles) to the north, which supplies mines run by French nuclear group Areva.

They were the latest in a series of attacks which have turned northern Niger, home to some of the world's largest deposits of uranium, into a military zone.

"The MNJ wants to remind those who may have forgotten that it can at any moment suspend the operations of sites extracting minerals in the northern zone of the country," the group said on its Web site m-n-j.blogspot.com.

Government soldiers fought off the attack in Agadez, an ancient Saharan trading town once popular with European tourists, but at least two people were killed in the cross-fire, a senior military official said, asking not to be named.

"They were civilians killed by stray bullets. (The rebels) fire a hail of bullets all over the place then retreat in an effort to spread fear. It's their way of making out they control the zone when in fact they control nothing," he said.

Seydou Kaocen Maiga, a Paris-based member of the MNJ, said the army was responsible for the deaths.

The attack on Niger electricity provider SONICHAR in Tchirozérine had cut off power to the town and to two uranium mines run by Areva <CEPFi.PA> subsidiaries after the site was damaged by a rocket, the military official said.

The MNJ has killed at least 40 soldiers and taken dozens hostage since February, when it launched a campaign of attacks against military and industrial targets in northern Niger, where foreign firms are also prospecting for oil.

The group is demanding more development for the vast region around Agadez and a greater share in its mineral wealth. Around 20 foreign firms, from countries including China, India and Canada, hold permits to explore for uranium in the area.

The government has said it is working to secure the zone and has called on neighbouring countries around the Sahara to help cut off the rebels' ammunition, fuel and food supply lines.

Northern Niger has long been a hotbed of dissent, largely beyond government control, full of disillusioned, unemployed youths and awash with arms left over from an uprising by Tuareg, Arab and Toubou nomads in the 1990s.

Most of those rebel groups accepted peace deals in 1995 but the MNJ says the government has not lived up to its promises, failing to integrate former fighters and leaving the north economically marginalised and rife with insecurity.

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