By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun
Making his first public appearance since rebels attacked the capital N'Djamena at the weekend and besieged his presidential palace, Deby accused the president of neighbouring Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of backing the rebel offensive.
France, which has warplanes and more than 1,000 troops in its former colony, initially said it was "neutral" as fighting raged at the weekend, but later threw its weight behind Deby.
Deby, who has fought off several rebel bids to end his 18-year rule in the central African oil producer, said he had not yet asked the French army to step in.
After meeting Morin, the former French-trained helicopter pilot said he could consider pardoning six French aid workers jailed by Chad for abducting children, if France requested it.
REBELS VOW RETURN
"If we are attacked, then we have the right to legitimately defend ourselves," rebel spokesman Ali Ordjo Hemchi said, urging France not to back a "failed regime".
Deby's government said it had defeated its Chadian rebel foes, who had made a lightning advance last week from the eastern border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
"We'll retake the offensive in a few days," he said.
The increased conflict has delayed the deployment of a 3,700-strong European Union peacekeeping force to east Chad to protect thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who have fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur.
The British charity Save the Children called on the United Nations to organise urgent supply airlifts from neighbouring Cameroon and Central African Republic.
Tens of thousands of N'Djamena residents fled south into Cameroon and Nigeria after the weekend fighting, but hundreds started returning on Wednesday after the Chadian government made TV and radio broadcasts saying it was safe to come back.
French warplanes have been flying reconnaissance missions over rebel positions and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday that a rebel force of between 100 and 200 vehicles was still somewhere east of the capital.
