pN'djamena, Jan 23: A UN peacekeeping force being considered for Chad would be used to prot

N'djamena, Jan 23: A UN peacekeeping force being considered for Chad would be used to protect refugees and civilians and not intervene in the conflict between the Chadian government and rebels, a UN official said today.

The United Nations, blocked by Sudan from sending UN peacekeepers to Darfur, is weighing how to send a smaller force into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.

A UN assessment team, which will study how the force could be deployed, began a visit to Chad yesterday. It will also visit Central African Republic to consider a similar deployment there.

''The multi-dimensional presence we are envisaging will be charged with the ... protection of refugee and displaced populations, and eventually the local population,'' the team leader Francois Dureau told reporters in N'Djamena.

But he ruled out the idea of UN peacekeepers trying to keep apart Chad government forces and rebels opposed to President Idriss Deby who have waged a hit-and-run war from the east of the landlocked central African country for months.

In no circumstances would the UN mission to Chad be an ''intervention force'', Dureau said after talks with Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi.

Allam-Mi agreed: ''It's not a force to intervene. It's an international force to protect refugee camps, IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and monitor the border. In order to intervene, you need to have a peace deal''.

Eastern Chad, which borders with the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, has experienced a wave of inter-communal violence and attacks by Janjaweed Arab militia which have killed hundreds of people in recent months.

UN-run camps housing more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur are strung along the border area and have also suffered raids by rebels and militia.

''SOVEREIGNTY NOT AFFECTED''

Sudan, which rejects Chadian charges that it supports the anti-Deby rebels, has resisted the deployment of UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur, where a rebellion combined with ethnic violence has killed tens of thousands since 2003.

Some UN officials have said that because the area along Chad's and Central African Republic's borders with Darfur is so isolated and landlocked, a peacekeeping force could end up costing as much as $1 billion a year.

Without mentioning costs, Dureau said in N'Djamena: ''It's evident that considering the environment and dimensions of the area, we cannot assure complete security for all areas of such a vast territory.'' Allam-Mi said Chad did not see the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force affecting its national sovereignty.

''In this global world, you must sometimes abandon a bit of sovereignty in order to cooperate with the international community, to deal with difficult and catastrophic situations,'' he said.

Sudan, which has compared UN soldiers to neocolonialists, wants to allow into Darfur only an expanded African Union force, building on the 7,000 AU troops already in the western Sudanese region torn by four years of civil war.

Some UN officials have expressed reservations about deploying UN troops to Chad and Central African Republic, saying political solutions to the rebellions in both countries should be worked out first to create ''a peace to keep''.

The assessment mission is due to submit its recommendations to the 15-nation Security Council by mid-February.

Reuters