Nigeria's newly appointed chief of defence staff on Thursday toured the strife-wracked Niger Delta where militants launched an "oil war" last weekend.

Air Marshal Paul Dike said he was in the region, hit over the past five days by some of the worst attacks on oil installations in recent years of insurgency there, to see how the military was handling the unrest.

Five years ago the government created and deployed a special military unit, the Joint Task Force (JTF), to combat the rebellion by local armed militants claiming to be fighting for a greater share of the oil revenue in the Niger Delta.

"I am in Rivers State to assess the performance of the JTF and I am pleased to say that I am very satisfied with what I have seen although there are a couple of areas we have to work on," Dike said at the end of a tour he conducted secretly.

Dike went around one of the states in the delta, Rivers State, scene of the latest attacks staged by the militants under the command of the most prominent armed militant group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

Despite an upsurge in attacks on oil installations in the region, Rivers State governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi put up a brave face saying the situation was under control and had improved.

"What you are seeing here is an improvement on what it used to be. It used to be extremely bad. We have five days running without a kidnap," he told Dike.

"The JTF in their recent performance have shown that those who are doing this are criminals masquerading as freedom fighters. The times for crime are close to being over," he said.

Since it declared an oil war over the weekend, MEND has hit several installations operated by multi-national oil giants. It declared war to the oil industry at the weekend in response to what it said was an unprovoked attack by the army on one of its positions.

The attacks, most of which have been confirmed by the oil firms and the army, have seen the country's oil output drop, but officials are yet to declare the extent of the loss.

Since MEND took up arms in early 2006, Nigeria's oil output has been cut by at least one quarter as a consequence of kidnappings and sabotage in the Delta.