(Corrects name of group in second paragraph to "Ogaden National Liberation Front")

By Tsegaye Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA, April 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese on Tuesday in an attack on an oil field run by a Chinese company, and Ethiopia's government blamed rebels backed by regional foe Eritrea.

Bereket Simon, special adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, blamed the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) which he said was fighting a proxy war on behalf of Asmara.

"The bandits entered the camp at around five a.m. and shot dead the 74 people while they were sleeping," he told Reuters.

Seven other Chinese workers and "scores" of Ethiopians were kidnapped by the gunmen from the site near Jijiga, 630 km (390 miles) east of the capital Addis Ababa, Bereket said.

"The government has launched hot pursuit," he said.

In a statement, the ONLF said it attacked Ethiopian soldiers guarding an oil exploration field in Northern Ogaden region.

"The oil facility has been completely destroyed," it said.

"The ONLF has stated on numerous occasions that we will not allow the mineral resources of our people to be exploited by this regime or any firm."

It gave no other details about the pre-dawn raid.

Ethiopia's government has long blamed the ONLF -- ethnic Somalis fighting for independence from Addis Ababa -- for attacks on government troops in the vast, dry Ogaden region.

Bereket also linked Tuesday's raid to last month's abduction of five Europeans and eight Ethiopians in northeastern Ethiopia.

"We believe the killing has the same pattern with the recent kidnapping ... by an Eritrean armed group (aimed at) scaring away investors and foreign firms from coming to Ethiopia." (Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens)

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