NIAMEY, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A driver died on Tuesday after his vehicle hit a landmine in the central Niger town of Tahoua, the second civilian killed in two days in what appeared to be an urban offensive by the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ).

The incident took place late on Monday in Tahoua, some 650 km (406 miles) northeast of the capital Niamey and the site of planned visit by President Amadou Tandja next week.

The driver of the vehicle died in hospital on Tuesday, medical sources said. Another civilian died on Monday after his truck ran over an anti-tank mine in the central town of Maradi.

The attack at Maradi, some 550 km east of the capital Niamey, was the first successful urban attack during an uprising by the light-skinned nomadic Tuareg people.

The Tuareg-led MNJ has killed at least 49 soldiers, mainly using land mines on desert highways, in a 10-month campaign for greater autonomy for Niger's isolated, uranium-rich north.

Tandja's administration last month extended a state of alert in northern Niger and said the MNJ was planning to take its uprising from desert regions to towns and cities.

On Nov. 21 police foiled an attempt to detonate an anti-tank mine in a fuel depot in the town of Dosso, 140 km east of Niamey. (Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi, editing by Daniel Flynn and Robert Woodward)

AlertNet news is provided by