By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY, June 11 (Reuters) - Authorities in Niger's remote desert north have banned travel between towns without a military escort following a rise in attacks by nomadic rebels, army sources in the West African country said on Monday.

Northern Niger, where foreign companies are mining uranium and exploring for oil, has seen an upsurge in attacks this year by Tuareg rebels who have long complained of neglect by central government, more than 1,000 km (600 miles) away in the capital.

The governor of the vast region of Agadez, a dusty Saharan trading town and meeting point of ancient caravan routes, had ruled that passengers and goods must be accompanied by soldiers when travelling outside towns after 3 p.m..

"We don't have the means to accompany each vehicle or group of vehicles so we're asking for people to help with this effort," one military official said, asking not to be named.

"People should either not take to the road alone or they should pay part of the costs for the convoy," he said.

Rebels from numerous light-skinned ethnic Tuareg, Arab and Toubou groups staged an uprising in the 1990s in northern Niger demanding more autonomy from the black-dominated government.

Most groups accepted peace deals in 1995 but insecurity remains rife, with frequent acts of banditry, carjacking and kidnapping by former rebels who say they are still marginalised.

A Tuareg group calling itself the Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) was blamed for an attack on a uranium mine operated by a subsidiary of French mining group AREVA <CEPFi.PA> in April, in which one soldier was killed.

Members of the group, which also claimed responsibility for killing three Niger soldiers in February, took part last month in a cross-border assault on a gendarmerie post in the Malian town of Tin-Za, deep in the Sahara near the Algerian border.

The attacks have raised fears of a resurgent rebellion.

OIL AND URANIUM

The MNJ, which is demanding that income from natural resources be more fairly shared out, has issued warnings on local radio to employees of the Chinese National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) -- exploring for crude in the region -- to leave.

Despite its mineral riches, which besides uranium include iron ore, coal, copper, silver, platinum, titanium and lithium, Niger was listed bottom of a 2006 U.N. development index ranking countries by quality of life.

High levels of unemployment and a young population fuel resentment in the north, where trafficking cigarettes or smuggling migrants trying to get to Europe has become an industry of its own.

Fearing that potentially oil-producing swathes of the southern Sahara desert could become a haven for militant Islamic groups, the United States military has been training armies -- including that of Niger -- in counter-terrorism operations.

U.S. Special Forces have held regular training exercises in recent years as part of Washington's Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership to bolster cooperation between countries in the region and boost intelligence sharing.

Niger's government refuses to recognise the MNJ and denies talk of a resurgent Tuareg rebellion, dismissing the fighters as bandits and drug-traffickers.

But it has been forced to send army reinforcements to the north and last month approved more than $60 million in extra budget funds to confront the attacks.

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