NAIROBI, Jan 18 (AFP) - At least 18 people were killed in a clash between Ethiopian government troops and rebel Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) militiamen at the Kenyan frontier town of Moyale on Saturday, Kenyan newspapers reported Monday.

Several people were also injured in the fighting which, other reports said, had killed as many as 40 people on both sides of the Kenyan-Ethiopian border.

Four of the injured were Kenyans -- two homeguards and two civilians -- who were in a Kenyan manyatta (nomadic village) when Ethiopian troops attacked it, Moyale district commissioner Stephen Kipkabut confirmed.

Kipkabut said the Kenyans were injured when the Ethiopian soldiers, in an alleged pursuit of OLF militiamen, attacked the manyatta at Dambalafachala location on the Kenyan side of the border.

The Ethiopians became engaged in a shootout with a group of armed homeguards whom they overpowered, injuring two of them, Kipkabut said.

Kipkabut said the Ethiopian forces had wrongfully crossed the border on the pretext that they were looking for OLF militiamen who had attacked their bases.

The fighting, which took place at the border, had claimed the lives of 14 Ethiopian soldiers and four OLF militiamen, causing thousands of Kenyans to flee the border areas, he added.

Kipkabut also said he visited the Ethiopian side of the border on Sunday morning after addressing public rallies in Dambalafachala and its surroundings to reassure the Kenyan residents of their safety, with a view to protesting to the Ethiopian authorities, "but they refused to give us audience."

"It seems that this was a deliberate attack on us since the Ethiopans know the start and the end of the common border we share. This is a total abuse of our sovereignty," Kipkabut was quoted as saying.

Kenyan troops were now patrolling the border, ready to repulse any other incursions, Kipkabut said.

It has in the past been alleged that the OLF militiamen have bases within Kenya. This claim was reinforced when armed groups believed to be Gabbra and Boran clansmen acting with the support of the OLF attacked several villages in Wajir district of northeastern Kenya and killed 142 people last year in what is now known as the "Bagalla massacre."

The Kenyan authorities have denied the OLF is operating from the Kenyan side.