By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

NIAMEY, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Niger President Mamadou Tandja on Monday called on Tuareg fighters who have rebelled against his rule to lay down their arms, and said the country should not seek reprisals against their northern ethnic group.

Rebels of the Tuareg-led Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) have killed at least 49 soldiers, mainly using land mines on desert highways, in a 10-month campaign for greater autonomy for the country's isolated, uranium-rich north.

Tandja's government has refused to recognise the light-skinned nomadic desert fighters of the MNJ, dismissing them as "bandits" who traffic in arms and drugs.

In a national broadcast on Monday to mark Niger's Republic Day, the president said his government intended to denounce the rebel fighters to the United Nations as part of the international war against terrorism.

But at the same time he appealed to young Tuaregs involved in the rebellion to quit MNJ ranks.

"I call on those who have chosen to defy state authority by taking up arms, those who have been deceived and caught up in this dangerous path, to return to reason," he said in a speech carried by state radio and television.

Tandja's administration last month extended a state of alert in northern Niger, but raids by the rebels have continued.

Government military officers said MNJ fighters attacked an army-escorted civilian convoy between Agadez and Arlit on Saturday, wounding three people. The MNJ said on its Web site its forces killed 12 soldiers in the attack and wounded 15.

URBAN ATTACKS

The government has recently accused the rebel group of shifting 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 (miles) east of Niamey. Last week, a driver died after his vehicle hit a landmine at Tahoua in central Niger.

The deaths during the rebellion have fuelled anger against the Tuaregs and other nomadic northerners from non-Tuareg sectors of Niger's racially mixed population.

But Tandja said the desire for revenge should be resisted.

"Once again, let us not make the mistake of falling into the trap laid by these armed bandits, that of generalising and stigmatising an ethnic group," he said.

This year's insurgency echoes a revolt by the Tuaregs against a black African-dominated government in the 1990s. That rebellion ended with a peace deal in 1995 but the MNJ says the terms of the pact have not been fully implemented.

The conflict has turned northern Niger into a military zone, stifling a local economy which long relied on tourism and the ability to get produce to market.

The rebellion, which has included a raid on at least one uranium mine, has slowed but not halted the government's efforts to ramp up lucrative uranium exports. Niger has issued some 89 exploration permits in two years to firms from China, Canada, Britain and elsewhere, breaking a 36-year monopoly held by French state nuclear company Areva.

"I will spare no effort to ensure that the important mining and oil resources on which we place high hopes are exploited to the benefit of all citizens of Niger," Tandja said. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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