By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's government is in total controlof the country after beating off a rebel offensive, PresidentIdriss Deby said on Wednesday as France's defence minister flewin to show his support.
Making his first public appearance since rebels attackedthe capital N'Djamena at the weekend and besieged hispresidential palace, Deby accused the president of neighbouringSudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of backing the rebel offensive.
"We have total control of the situation, not only in thecapital, but also the whole country," Deby, wearing militaryuniform, told a news conference at his palace in N'Djamenaafter meeting French Defence Minister Herve Morin.
France, which has warplanes and more than 1,000 troops inits former colony, initially said it was "neutral" as fightingraged at the weekend, but later threw its weight behind Deby.
After obtaining U.N. Security Council support for Deby'sgovernment, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesdayhis country could intervene if needed against the rebels, whomChad says are supported by Sudan. Khartoum denies this.
Deby, who has fought off several rebel bids to end his18-year rule in the central African oil producer, said he hadnot yet asked the French army to step in.
"Chad has always known how to defend itself," he said.
After meeting Morin, the former French-trained helicopterpilot said he could consider pardoning six French aid workersjailed by Chad for abducting children, if France requested it.
The members of charity Zoe's Ark were jailed in Decemberfor eight years for trying to fly 103 African children toEurope without permission. France's close relationship withChad had already helped secure their transfer to a French jailand a pardon would be a further sign of mutual cooperation.
REBELS VOW RETURN
Rebel forces said they were still occupying positions"around N'Djamena" and vowed to fight any French intervention.
"If we are attacked, then we have the right to legitimatelydefend ourselves," rebel spokesman Ali Ordjo Hemchi said,urging France not to back a "failed regime".
He said rebel forces had routed early on Wednesday a columnof pro-Deby "Toro-boro" Sudanese rebels north east of thecapital, but there was no independent confirmation of this.
Deby's government said it had defeated its Chadian rebelfoes, who had made a lightning advance last week from theeastern border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
A second rebel spokesman, Abderamane Koullamalah, said anarmy helicopter was bombarding insurgents 100 km (62 miles)northeast of N'Djamena. But he added the rebels would return.
"We'll retake the offensive in a few days," he said.
N'Djamena was calm on Wednesday. Ambulance workerscollected the bodies of those killed in the weekend fighting.
The increased conflict has delayed the deployment of a3,700-strong European Union peacekeeping force to east Chad toprotect thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadianswho have fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur.
Relief officials said the unrest was blocking aid flightsto more than half a million refugees and civilians in the east.
The British charity Save the Children called on the UnitedNations to organise urgent supply airlifts from neighbouringCameroon and Central African Republic.
"It has to happen within 48 hours," said Gareth Owen, Savethe Children's Head of Emergencies. "Otherwise the humanitarianaid effort will start to unravel."
Tens of thousands of N'Djamena residents fled south intoCameroon and Nigeria after the weekend fighting, but hundredsstarted returning on Wednesday after the Chadian governmentmade TV and radio broadcasts saying it was safe to come back.
A Chadian police officer with a megaphone told the crowd atthe border: "Come back home. N'Djamena is at peace".
French warplanes have been flying reconnaissance missionsover rebel positions and French Foreign Minister BernardKouchner said on Wednesday that a rebel force of between 100and 200 vehicles was still somewhere east of the capital.
