France backs Chad's Deby and ready to intervene

By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun

After obtaining U.N. Security Council backing for Deby's government, French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned the rebels France would "do its duty" and had the means to respond to any unlawful attack against its former colony.

"Our biggest handicap is the French army, not Idriss Deby," Mahamat Nouri, head of the rebel UFDD faction, told French radio RFI. "Without France, we are ready to chase Deby away today."

Chad has accused Sudan of supporting an offensive by the rebels, who stormed into the capital of the oil-producing central African country on Saturday. Khartoum denies this and accuses Chad in turn of supporting rebels in its Darfur region.

Fearing fresh attacks, more than 50,000 people fled south from N'Djamena into northern Cameroon across the bridge over the Longone-Chari river. Thousands more were displaced in and around N'Djamena and food and clean water were running short.

He announced in Brussels the European Commission had set aside 2 million euros ($2.96 million) in humanitarian funding to help meet the needs of refugees, displaced people and other vulnerable groups hit by violence in the west and east of Chad.

The United States also appealed for an end to the conflict in Chad, where a U.S.-led consortium has been extracting oil since 2003.

the rebels, to withdraw that support," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.

Chadian Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye dismissed talk of a truce. "A ceasefire, why? We'd agree a ceasefire with who?" he told France 24 television.

Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi told a news conference in Paris alongside his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that he was unaware of any political arrests.

Deby's government says it routed the insurgents using tanks and helicopters in chaotic fighting in which hundreds were injured. The rebels have said they withdrew to regroup.

Sarkozy said this meant his country could intervene in Chad in support of Deby. "If France has to do its duty, it will," he said during a visit to western France.