By Stephanie Hancock and Emmanuel Jarry
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's President Idriss Deby metFrench leader Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday and announced aninternational inquiry into this month's rebel raid on capitaland the disappearance of opposition leaders.
Sarkozy, in Chad to clarify the fate of the missingpoliticians and push for cross-party talks, met Deby at thepalace where he was besieged during two days of heavy fightingon Feb 2-3 in which Deby said more than 400 civilians werekilled.
A planned joint news conference was cancelled at the lastmoment and Sarkozy left without talking to journalists.
"Decisions have been taken, including the setting up of aninternational inquiry to shed light on all things that happenedin N'Djamena during this period," Deby told reporters.
France, Chad's former colonial ruler and long-term ally,came to Deby's aid during the attack, delivering ammunition tohis troops and drafting a U.N. resolution in his support.
That prompted Deby to consider pardoning six French aidworkers in jail in France for trying to kidnap 103 Chadianchildren in a high-profile case that tested diplomatic ties.
But since the rebels withdrew, France has steadilyincreased pressure on Deby's administration to talk to theopposition and produce three politicians dragged from theirhomes during the fighting, which aid workers say killed morethan 250 people.
Former President Lol Mahamat Choua has been released underhouse arrest, but Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh and NgarlejyYorongar have yet to be found -- although Deby's governmentsays Yorongar was spotted last week in N'Djamena.
Before leaving for Chad, Sarkozy met representatives fromsix international non-governmental organisations, includingHuman Rights Watch, which has said he should not visit Chaduntil the government proved the opposition members were alive.
"UP TO YOU TO MAKE PEACE"
Sarkozy's spokesman said earlier Sarkozy wanted a credibleinquiry into the politicians' disappearances and a resumptionof political dialogue, and would tell Deby friendship betweenthe two states could grow only if democracy in Chadaccelerated.
"It is up to you to make peace. We can help you but wecan't achieve reconciliation for you," Sarkozy told members ofDeby's ruling party who sit on a committee overseeing politicalreforms agreed with the opposition parties in August.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the model-turned-singer making herfirst overseas trip as first lady after marrying the Frenchpresident this month, met the wife of missing oppositioncoalition leader Saleh at the French embassy in N'Djamena.
Saleh's anti-Deby coalition stepped up pressure on Franceon Tuesday, accusing it of overstepping the terms of a militarypact with Chad and of backing Deby "whatever he has done".
Chadian authorities say they detained Choua, 70, as a"prisoner of war" on February 3 and that he will remain underhouse arrest while the inquiry against him continues. They saythey are not holding the two other opposition figures.
European Union aid commissioner Louis Michel and FrenchForeign Minister Bernard Kouchner, both among a largedelegation accompanying Sarkozy to Chad and South Africa, metChoua.
"The way he was taken from his home was quite brutal. Hewas scared and thought he was going to be executed," Choua'sspokesman Mahamat Allhou Tahir told Reuters.
The European Union is deploying a 3,700-strong force inChad to protect several hundred thousand Sudanese and Chadianrefugees living in camps in the dangerous east of the country.
But critics have demanded more action to restore peace.
(Additional reporting by Marlene Rabaud in N'Djamena,Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, David Brunnstrom in Brussels;Writing by Alistair Thomson; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
