They said among the things the EU -- the world's biggest provider of humanitarian aid -- would have to think about would be whether to redirect the money away from humanitarian aid toward helping the country's rehabilitation.

"These are possibilities. In order to take a decision we have to assess the situation. We will reserve our judgment until we have done a full in-depth analysis," one EU official said.

U.N. officials have said up to 8,000 people died in the weekend killings. The government put the number of dead at 300.

The situation arose after troops moved in last Tuesday to close nine camps in the southwest and force the 250,000 Hutus living there to go home.

According to the government, which said Hutu hardliners were using the camps as strongholds, Saturday's killings began when gunmen penned into a small compund at Kibeno refused army orders to leave and started shooting.

Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu said what followed was a "legitimate response by troops." Witnesses said they fired directly into the frightened crowd for an hour as the refugees stampeded in panic.

A spokesman for the European Commission said Emma Bonino, the Commissioner responsible for Humanitarian Aid policy, contacted in the Moroccan capital Rabat, was "deeply worried about what's happening now in Rwanda even though she thinks it's no surprise."

"She thinks that the EU should now assess how far it needs to go as far as humanitarian aid is concerned. That needs a political debate," he said.

Officials said the EU would have to weigh the wisdom of pouring aid into refugee camps which the Kigali government was intent on closing and into which the Hutu militias were regrouping while the rehabilitation process had hardly started.