  We report room temperature lasing in ZnO inverse opal photonic crystals in
the near-ultraviolet (UV) frequency. We observe random lasing due to disorder
in the structures when the photonic pseudogaps are located away from the ZnO
gain spectrum. Tuning the first $\Gamma L$-pseudogap to the gain peak leads to
a five-fold reduction in lasing threshold and frequency shift of lasing modes
due to the enhanced confinement of light.
