Unita rebels yesterday reported an upsurge in fighting in parts of Angola, just days after they attacked a train, killing more than 150 people.
UNITA said its forces killed at least 29 government soldiers in two offensives, while the government had attacked villages it held in a third region of the wealthy southern African nation.
There was no independent verification of the claims made in a statement signed by a UNITA commander, Gen Geraldo Abreu.
On Monday UNITA said it carried out Friday's attack, one of the bloodiest in recent years of Angola's long-running civil war, on a train south-east of the capital Luanda.
It said it killed 26 soldiers and 11 policemen in that attack and claimed the train was a military convoy, not a passenger train as the government had said.
Church sources said at least 152 people died in the horrific assault. The train hit a landmine on the track and exploded into a ball of flame. Survivors said fleeing passengers were mowed down by gunmen.
In yesterday's statement, UNITA said its attacks in the Huambo and Bie regions were replies to a government dry-season offensive which hit villages, farming fields and rural populations with "indiscriminate air bombings".
The upsurge in fighting was seen by regional analysts as an attempt by UNITA to force a defiant government back to the negotiating table.
The government and rebels have been locked in a civil war for most of the 26 years since independence from Portugal. "We are getting the sense of increased rebel activity in Angola and I think it is because of the possibility of negotiations," said Ms Hannelie de Beer of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
"If you are strong militarily you can negotiate from a position of strength," she added.
The rebels said, "On August 12th, our forces stormed the command post of the government army's 17th Regiment currently on the offensive in the Luvemba area, north of Bailundo." Fifteen government troops died in that Huambo region attack, UNITA added.
A huge assortment of arms and ammunition was also seized in the major UNITA operation near Bailundo - a central highland city that previously served as UNITA leader Mr Jonas Savimbi's headquarters, it said.
UNITA said it killed an additional 14 government troops, including the commander of the army unit, at Chiombo commune north of Andulo in the Bie region.
It also accused government troops of the 20th Brigade of slaying a Protestant priest with a machete during the raids in Moxico province.
The priest, identified as Pastor Sachissola, was killed during an attack on Chirindo village, UNITA said.
Mr Savimbi, veteran leader of the Chinese-trained guerrilla movement, lost Bailundo and nearby Andulo in 1999 in a huge government offensive after a shaky 1994 peace deal collapsed and fresh fighting erupted.
About a million people have been killed and millions more uprooted in Africa's longest-running conflict. Military analysts say neither side can win the war.