Fighting reported on outskirts of east Chad city

N'DJAMENA, Nov 25 (Reuters) Heavy gunfire broke out early today on the outskirts of Chad's eastern city of Abeche in what appeared to be an attack by rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby, humanitarian workers based there said.

They said they heard intense automatic rifle fire, and the sound of heavier weapons.

''It was some kind of attack by the rebels on the edge of Abeche,'' said a senior foreign humanitarian official, who asked not to be named. She said the sound of the fighting lasted around 45 minutes and then subsided.

Abeche, located around 160 km from the border with Sudan, is the base for humanitarian organisations operating in the east of the landlocked country.

The east, where the UN refugee agency UNHCR runs camps for thousands of refugees from Sudan's Darfur and for displaced Chadians, has seen a a wave of armed attacks in recent months, including offensives by anti-Deby rebels Chad says are backed by Sudan.

The last offensive in late October by rebels of the anti-Deby coalition Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), was pushed back by government forces. Khartoum denies backing the rebels.

Chad's government yesterday extended for six months a state of emergency in N'Djamena and other regions, including the east, which had been imposed on November. 13 to tackle recent ethnic clashes and armed raids that have killed hundreds of villagers.

REUTERS BDP PM1347