By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, May 24 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has recalled its ambassador from Belgium in a growing diplomatic dispute between the central African giant and its small former colonial ruler, cabinet minutes published on Saturday said.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht criticised the Congolese government over human rights, corruption, and its dealings with China during a visit to Congo last month.

Meeting on Friday, Congo's cabinet criticised De Gucht, a straight-talking Flemish liberal, for remarks it said he had recently made asserting that Belgium had a "moral right" over Congo and its leaders.

"The government of (Congo) addresses a strong protest to the Belgian government and reminds it that Congo is an independent and sovereign country," read a copy of the minutes of the cabinet meeting made public on Saturday.

The minutes said Congo had withdrawn its ambassador for consultations and planned to close its consulate in Belgium's northern port city of Antwerp, which is in De Gucht's native Flanders and is a centre of the world trade in diamonds -- one of Congo's many mineral exports.

"The cabinet has also decided to proceed with the re-examination of the cooperation between our two countries in order to evaluate the true scope and to determine its necessity," the minutes said.

Congo has a separate ambassador to the European Union, which is headquartered in Brussels and is one of Congo's major donors, a Congolese Foreign Ministry official said.

Congo dwarfs its former ruler with a land area 77 times that of Belgium's and 66 million people to Belgium's 10 million.

Relations between the two have frequently been rocky.

Belgian officials committed atrocities against locals during colonial rule and after a hasty independence in 1960 Congo descended into decades of dictatorship, mismanagement and war.

In 2006 President Joseph Kabila became Congo's first democratically chosen leader in more than four decades.

He had been widely hailed by Western governments for his efforts to negotiate a peace agreement ending a bloody 1998-2003 war that left much of the country in ruins and killed an estimated 5.4 million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

However, his cash-strapped government's decision earlier this year to agree a $9 billion loan and investment package with China has created tensions with traditional partners and donors.

As well as criticising Kabila's opposition to having a U.N. human rights reporter for his country, and the slow pace of reforms to tackle corruption, De Gucht attacked the Chinese deal during his April visit for its perceived lack of transparency.

Kabila hit back in an interview with Brussels' Le Soir newspaper, telling Belgium to choose between "an adult partnership ... or a master-slave relationship" with Congo. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com) (Editing by Alistair Thomson)

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