BUJUMBURA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Nine fighters have been killed in new clashes between two factions of Burundi's last rebel group, FNL, an army spokesman said on Monday.

The battle took place in the Kabezi district, about 15 km (nine miles) south of the capital Bujumbura, after combatants loyal to the leader of the ethnic Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) attacked a camp on Sunday.

The camp was sheltering nearly 400 fighters from an FNL faction that opposes FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, said the army spokesman, Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza.

The fighting was the second major clash between Rwasa's forces and the splinter group. The latest clash killed about 20 rebels in a northern suburb of Bujumbura in September.

An FNL spokesman accused the government and South African mediators of supporting the dissident FNL group in a bid to weaken Rwasa.

"The people who claim to be dissidents have been created by the government and we will combat them," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told Reuters by telephone.

The FNL insurgency is seen as the final barrier to lasting stability in the tiny coffee-growing nation, where more than a decade of civil war has killed some 300,000 people.

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