Fire raged on Tuesday at the Supreme Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after clashes between police and supporters of Jean-Pierre Bemba, who has filed a legal challenge after losing the country's presidential election.

Black smoke poured out of the court building at about 1pm local time and the fire crew of the United Nations mission in the DRC (Monuc) arrived to help the Kinshasa fire brigade, which was short of water, journalists at the scene reported.

Two police cars were burned in protests by Bemba supporters who had clashed about two hours earlier with riot police using tear gas after they staged a protest while judges in the court were considering Bemba's challenge to the election results.

About a dozen armoured Monuc vehicles were on the scene by the beginning of the afternoon and most of the demonstrators had vanished.

The Kinshasa police also came under fire from troops in Bemba's guard near the former rebel leader's residence in the administrative district of the capital, close to the Supreme Court premises, but no casualties were immediately reported.

Bemba lost the October 29 second round of the first democratic presidential election in more than 40 years to incumbent President Joseph Kabila, according to the final provisional results released last week by the Independent Electoral Commission.

A wealthy businessman and one of four vice-presidents in a transitional regime set up in 2003 to oversee a transition from war raging across the vast country to democratic rule, Bemba on Saturday lodged allegations of electoral malpractice before the Supreme Court, which then had seven days to consider it.

The court was in public session when the demonstration took place but the presiding Judge, Kalonda Kele, adjourned the proceedings.

Protesters had initially clashed with police there before heading for Bemba's residence where the gunfire broke out; then some people began looting Supreme Court offices and trying to set fire to the building.

Most of the demonstrators dispersed when Monuc troops in armoured vehicles -- who had initially not intervened and partially withdrew from around the court building -- fired warning shots into the air.

"We have redeployed our troops. An armoured company of around 150 'blue berets' has been sent to the place," Monuc spokesperson Kemal Sekai said.

By about 1.30 pm, the UN forces appeared to have gained the upper hand at the Supreme Court premises.

Credible elections
The DRC elections were democratic, peaceful, credible and remarkably transparent, the South African observer mission said in its final report released on Tuesday.

Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George, who headed the group, said in a statement voting in the country took place in a "reasonably peaceful" environment and counting was "remarkably transparent".

"The mission is of the view that space was created for the people of the DRC to freely choose their representative leaders," he said.

"The mission concludes that the October 29 2006 presidential run-off and provincial elections were conducted in a climate conducive for a democratic expression of the will of the people of the DRC and therefore calls on all Congolese to accept the outcome of the elections," George said.

He said this includes the ruling of the Supreme Court on Bemba's challenge of the election.

The 108-member South African mission was the largest observer mission in the country during the elections and was deployed in all 11 provinces in the DRC.

George said it did not observe any major incidents of irregularities with the voting process, but was concerned about a few incidents of violence in the eastern part of the country. This included the killing of two staff members of the DRC's Independent Electoral Commission in Ituri.

"The mission views these incidents in a serious light and regrets the loss of life. These isolated incidents, regrettable as they were, did not have material effect on the conduct of the elections," George said.

"The mission believes that the people of Congo have suffered enough over the years and deserve peace and stability in their motherland." -- Sapa-AFP, Sapa