NAIROBI, July 16 (Reuter) - Rwanda has accused European Commissioner Emma Bonino of misleading the international community that there were still hundreds of thousands of refugees outside the Central Africa state. A statement issued by the Rwandan presidency late on Tuesday accused Bonino of waging a slander campaign against Rwanda. "Even after the massive return of Rwandan refugees from the former Zaire and Tanzania, Mrs Bonino still chooses to mislead international opinion by maintaining that there are still several hundreds of thousands of refugees outside Rwanda," the statement said. "She (Bonino) has never concealed her bitterness over the dismantling of the refugee camps and the subsequent return home of the Rwandan people. "Indeed it is evident that she has been the mouthpiece of those in her own part of the world who are not happy with the changes in the Great Lakes region," the statement added. The Rwandan statement came three days after Bonino, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, launched a sc

athing attack on political developments in Central Africa, describing recent events as "the unattractive side of African assertiveness". Bonino, who has overseen EU efforts to coordinate aid and relief in the region, told Reuters on Sunday that her outburst was fired by comments by Rwandan Vice-President Paul Kagame. In an interview last week with the Washington Post, Kagame -- who is also Rwanda's defence minister -- admitted his country's role in toppling Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko and installing Laurent Kabila as ruler of a renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo. But on Tuesday Kabila, whose forces seized power in May, denied Kagame's claims and said he had summoned him over the remarks. Bonino said despite Kagame's revelations, dozens of questions remained unanswered over political developments in the region, particularly Kagame's claim that the rebellion in former Zaire took place with U.S. approval. Hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled Rwanda in 1994 to escape blame for the genocide of 800,000

Tutsis. Most returned when Kabila's rebellion started in eastern Zaire last October, but hundreds of thousands instead fled further west. Since then there have been dozens of reports of massacres of refugees by the rebels. Kinshasa and Kigali have denied atrocities have taken place, but until Kagame's revelations last week they had also denied any Rwandan role in the rebellion. Bonino called on the international community to step up pressure on Kabila to cooperate more fully with a U.N. investigation into human rights abuses, but said she doubted the political will existed for such action.