NANSAN, China, September 1, 2009 (AFP) - The children are everywhere -- clinging to their parents, strapped to the backs of their grandmothers, or running and shouting in the dusty streets of this town on China's border with Myanmar.

A baby has even been born in the past few days in southwestern Nansan, now a temporary home to thousands of people who fled recent deadly fighting between Myanmar government forces and rebels in mainly ethnic Chinese Kokang.

Refugees living in tent camps and abandoned buildings here until they can be repatriated say their main priority now, with the threat of renewed conflict still palpable, is to protect the children.

"Right now it is safe here in China," said a young father of three who would only identify himself as Teng.

"We don't know what the situation over there is like so it could be a while before we go back -- maybe seven or eight days."

Teng was tending to a group of about 26 refugees -- most of them children under the age of 10. They were sitting on their bundles of clothes on Nansan's main street, only a few hundred metres (yards) from the border crossing.

Rather than stay in a Chinese-run camp, the group is sheltering in a nearby disused commercial building, now crowded with some of the more than 30,000 people who have streamed into Yunnan province in recent days.

"The owner is not here, so we moved in," Teng said.

"We are taking care of ourselves. But we are pretty concerned -- I don't have a job and food costs money so we are going to have to find a way to make ends meet."

At a refugee camp in Nansan, the young also far outnumbered the adults -- mainly women and the elderly.

"At present we do not know how many children or babies are here," provincial government spokesman Li Hui told AFP.

"But we have already had our first birth here in the refugee camp so the numbers of babies are increasing."

An ethnic Chinese woman from Kokang gave birth several days ago, but refused to stay in Nansan's public hospital, preferring to return to the care of her family and friends in the camp, Li said.

Although young men of military age were seen scattered among the crowds of refugees, none admitted to AFP that they were members of the rebel Kokang army who reportedly fled the fighting, which reports said left at least 36 dead.

The refugee situation has emerged as a potential irritant in Myanmar's ties with Beijing, especially as most of the Kokang residents are ethnic Chinese.

Among the dead were two Chinese nationals, one of whom was killed by shells that came over the border from Myanmar.

Chinese officials say the situation is under control in Kokang, with junta forces patrolling the streets, and residents can begin heading home. More than 2,600 people crossed the border on Monday.

Large families with numerous children boarded buses at the frontier, but several said they were still not sure that going home was the right thing to do.

"I don't know if it is safe or not back there, but we are going," said an elderly man surnamed Yang, who was accompanying his wife and at least four grandchildren.

"We are going back because we have food at our home, and we have clothes and things for the kids that we don't have here."