LUANDA, Angola -- Less than 24 hours after the Angolan government and UNITA rebels initialed a peace accord, government forces have recaptured an important oil town in heavy fighting, state media reported Tuesday.


Under the accord reached in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, the Angolan government and UNITA are to declare a ceasefire Nov. 17.


The truce, after nearly two decades of civil war, is to take place two days after the formal signing of the agreement by President Jos? Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.


"Heavy fighting is going on in the municipality of Soyo, after its reoccupation by the Angolan army," the state newspaper Jornal de Angola reported Tuesday. The report was the first official confirmation that government forces had re-entered the town, the center of Angola's on-shore oil industry.


A government source said government forces Monday advanced toward the UNITA stronghold of Huambo, in the central highlands where Savimbi has his headquarters, but were being held back by UNITA mine fields.


Diplomats said that despite the peace accord they anticipated further fighting as the two sides try to gain territory before a halt in the war, which erupted in 1975.