SPORADIC gunfire broke out at two army camps and near the United Nations headquarters in the Congolese capital Kinshasa early yesterday in what one UN official said appeared to be a mutinty at a barracks.

A senior presidential aide said the firing followed government forces? discovery of an arms cache belonging to soldiers of the ex-FAZ ? the former personal guard of the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was deposed in 1997. The shooting comes amid political tensions in Congo?s power-sharing government, which took office last year, officially ending a brutal five-year war that claimed more than three million lives.

The country?s budget is about to come up for approval. Civil servants are threatening to strike over pay, parliamentarians complain there is insufficient funds for integration of the army and democratic reforms.

?There seems to have been some sort of disturbance which has been assessed so far as being a mutiny in the barracks by soldiers who have not been paid in months,? said Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Witchurch, a UN military information officer. Light gunfire erupted at around 4 a.m. close to the Tshatshi and Kokolo military camps, the former very close to the river crossing to the capital of the Republic of Congo, Brazzaville.

?There has been firing around the UN headquarters? a UN source said.

About 3, 000 to 4,000 ex-FAZ (Forces Armées Zaïroises) remain housed in Brazzaville. They have asked to be integrated into Kinshasa?s national army but feel they have been ignored.

United Nations forces remain in the country, committed to disarming uncooperative militia. In recent weeks, its troops have been coming under increasing attacks and ambushes. It has some 10,800 troops in Congo of which 5,000 are in the troubled northeastern provice of Ituri.