Chad rebuffs French idea for Darfur aid corridor

N'DJAMENA, June 5 (Reuters) Chad today rebuffed a proposal by France to set up a humanitarian corridor through its territory to channel aid to victims of violence in Sudan's Darfur, saying it did not see the need for such a strategy.

''Chad does not need this corridor because there is a perfect and full cooperation between the Chadian authorities and the United Nations organisations,'' Nouradine Delwa Kassire Coumakoye told a news conference in N'Djamena.

Coumakoye said he had heard of the suggestion by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner to create such an aid corridor or corridors in eastern Chad and protect them with a force of European troops.

''The French foreign minister has talked about it. And it's not fair,'' Coumakoye said. Chadian officials said they had received no formal proposal from France.

Former French colony Chad has struggled to cope with an influx of tens of thousands of refugees who have fled over its eastern border from Sudan's western region of Darfur, where political and ethnic conflict raging since 2003 have killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2 million from their homes.

Chad has also faced rebel attacks and inter-ethnic violence in its volatile east.

Reuters ABM RS2146