By Pascal Fletcher
DAKAR (Reuters) - A Chadian rebel leader threatened onSunday to attack Chad's southern oil-producing Doba regionunless France and the United States put pressure on PresidentIdriss Deby to start a dialogue with his foes.
Timane Erdimi, head of the Rally of Forces for Change (RFC)which raided the capital N'Djamena early in February with otherrebels groups, said his forces could halt oil output frominstallations in the south pumping up to 160,000 barrels perday.
"We can carry the war to the south ... if the Americans andthe French don't put pressure on Deby to open an all-inclusivedialogue," Erdimi told Reuters in a telephone interview.
He said the Doba basin, where U.S. major Exxon Mobil Corpheads a consortium pumping 140,000-160,000 bpd via a pipelineto Cameroon's Atlantic coast, could become a target unlessParis and Washington did more to achieve a politicalsettlement.
"We could quite easily halt the flow of oil," he said.
He was speaking from the Sudanese capital Khartoum threedays after Chad's Deby and his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassanal-Bashir signed a non-aggression pact in Dakar, Senegal inwhich they agreed to stop backing rebels hostile to each other.
The Chadian rebels, both Erdimi's RFC and another group,the National Alliance led by Mahamat Nouri, say the Dakaraccord does not concern them and have vowed to go on fightingDeby.
"Our military forces are inside Chad, so the Sudanese andChadian governments can't do anything," he said.
The rebels besieged Deby, a French-trained ex-pilot whoseforces had intelligence and logistical support from France'smilitary, in his palace on February 2-3 before pulling back.
The rebel coalition has since split politically, but Erdimisaid they were still cooperating militarily and could strike atthe oil-producing south, which has been spared attacks so far.
"The government only controls N'Djamena and the town ofAbeche (in the east). That's it," Erdimi said.
"If we have to move, we'll move together," he said.
Chad's southern oil region borders to the east with CentralAfrican Republic (CAR), whose lawless northern territoryChadian rebels have crossed through in the past to strike atN'Djamena.
"HIDDEN INTERESTS"
The European Union is deploying a 3,700-strong militaryforce in east Chad and northeast CAR to protect thousands ofrefugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur. The rebels object to thedominant French component of this EU force, known as EUFOR,saying it will not be neutral and will help prop up Deby.
"Under these circumstances, in which EUFOR comes to the aidof Deby, we have no alternative but to fight EUFOR," he said.
RFC leader Erdimi is a nephew of Deby and a formerpresidential adviser who defected to the rebels three yearsago.
Erdimi said he was disappointed in the failure of France,the United States and the European Union to put real pressureon Deby to seek a negotiated settlement with his opponents.
"There are hidden interests," he added.
He said French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government,despite protestations to the contrary, was still applying itstraditional "Francafrique" policy in which France supportedAfrican leaders as it chose in its former colonies like Chad,regardless of their democratic and human rights credentials.
"The Americans say that ... as long as the oil is flowing,then everything else is not their affair," Erdimi said.
Exxon Mobil's other partners in the World Bank-backed $3.7billion Doba pipeline, which started pumping in 2003, areChevron Corp, and Malaysia's state run Petronas.
Deby's critics accuse him of corrupt, dictatorial rulesince he took power himself in an eastern revolt in 1990.
(Editing by Sami Aboudi)
