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By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, July 24 (Reuters) - Cameroonian soldiers killed 10 gunmen who attacked them on Thursday in the Bakassi peninsula, a long-disputed territory Nigeria is transferring to Cameroon under a World Court order, Cameroon's Defence Ministry said.

A little-known armed Nigerian group opposed to the handover of the oil-rich territory, which claimed it carried out the attack, said only four of its men were killed and threatened more violence until the transfer is renegotiated.

It was the second attack on Cameroonian positions in Bakassi within a week by the Niger Delta Defence and Security Council (NDDSC), whose members attacked the Cameroonian security patrol in the area at the weekend.

Nigerian forces are due to complete their long-delayed full withdrawal from Bakassi in mid-August to comply with a 2002 World Court order.

But some Nigerians are opposed to the handover, including some of local inhabitants, most of whom are fishermen. Some Nigerian politicians also voiced their opposition to the handover last year.

"The locality of Kombo-Abedimo was attacked by an armed band ... on three speed boats," Cameroon's Defence Ministry said in a statement broadcast on state radio.

"Following a riposte from our naval defence forces, 10 of the attackers were killed, eight others captured and an important stock of arms and ammunition on one of the speed boats seized," it said.

Four Cameroonian soldiers were shot, one of whom died of his wounds on the way to hospital, the ministry said.

NDDSC spokesman Ebi Dari told Reuters by telephone early on Thursday another attack was being prepared, and confirmed later that his men were responsible for Thursday's attack.

"It is true our men came under intense gunfire from the Cameroon military, but only four of them were killed and two taken hostage. They also seized one of our speed boats and the arms that were inside," he said.

Dari said the group would continue to launch attacks in the area until Cameroon and Nigeria agreed to renegotiate the World Court ruling that recognised Cameroon's ownership of Bakassi without seeking the consent of the indigenous population.

Many of the Nigerian majority living in Bakassi say their ancestors lived in the area before a 1913 colonial era Anglo-German treaty on which the International Court of Justice, commonly known as the World Court, based its 2002 ruling.

Nigeria was originally due to pull out of Bakassi in September 2004, but missed that and subsequent deadlines.

Bakassi, which is known to have offshore oil, lies east of Nigeria's Niger Delta, where attacks by militant groups have cut output from the world's eighth-biggest oil producer by a fifth, helping push oil prices <CLc1> to record highs. (Reporting by Tansa Musa; editing by Alistair Thomson and Mary Gabriel)

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