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By Patrick Nduwimana

BUJUMBURA, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Burundi's police accused rebels on Monday of killing three officers during a shootout at the home of a government official in the capital Bujumbura. Police spokesman Pierre Ntarabaganyi said dozens of fighters from the Forces of National Liberation (FNL) attacked a house belonging to Rugazi district administrator late on Sunday.

"Police agents who were ensuring his security tried to push back the attack, but three of them were killed," he said, adding that the official had not been harmed.

He said the rebels later ransacked neighbouring homes, and he accused them of violating a truce signed in September 2006.

The FNL's persistent insurgency is seen as the final barrier to lasting stability in the tiny central African nation, where more than a decade of ethnic conflict has killed 300,000 people.

An FNL spokesman confirmed that an incident had taken place, but he said the guerrillas had only acted in self-defence.

"Our fighters were passing near the administrator's house when his security guards opened fire at them," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told Reuters by telephone from Tanzania.

"They were obliged to respond to the aggression."

Talks to implement the 2006 peace agreement have been suspended since last July when FNL members accused mediators of bias and quit their positions on a truce monitoring team.

Habimana said South African chief mediator Charles Nqakula was due to meet FNL leaders on Tuesday in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam to discuss how to end the deadlock.

"The mediator and Burundi's government should show willing to finish talks and implement the peace agreement," he said. (Writing by Daniel Wallis)

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