European Union, UN consider peacekeepers for Chad

UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (Reuters) With the Darfur conflict spilling into Chad and the Central African Republic, the European Union and the United Nations are considering troops and police to protect fleeing Sudanese refugees.

Stressing that talks were still in the preliminary stage, Jean-Marie Guehenno, the undersecretary-general in charge of peacekeeping, told reporters yesterday the concept was a European military force in Chad and a ''UN mission with a strong police component.'' Guehenno said he was traveling to Brussels next week for discussions with EU officials on protecting refugees and people fleeing their villages in eastern Chad because of the fighting in neighboring Darfur.

He also advocated international protection for the homeless in the northern part of the Central African Republic, which, like Chad, borders Sudan's Darfur region.

UN Security Council diplomats said the hope was that the EU would send forces into Chad for about six months, to be replaced after that by a UN operation.

It is far from certain whether the United Nations, which is scrambling to find more than 20,000 troops and police for Darfur, could field a force in Chad and the EU only wants its troops to stay for a limited period.

In Darfur, at least 200,000 people are estimated to have died and 2.1 million chased from their homes since fighting flared in 2003 when African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudan government in a conflict over resources.

Eastern Chad has some 230,000 Sudanese refugees and 120,000 of its own citizens chased from villages along the border with Darfur, mainly by pro-Sudan government militia. Most live in arid camps in the impoverished country.

France last month asked the EU to send up to 12,000 troops to Chad to set up a humanitarian corridor to Darfur refugees.

EU foreign ministers are due to discuss Sudan when they next meet on July 23, looking at what the EU can do to support an existing African Union force in the region and what could be done in Chad, an EU official said in Brussels on Thursday.

Faced with large numbers of refugees arriving from Darfur, and struggling to contain violence linked to the Darfur conflict and a domestic rebellion, Chad has repeatedly called for international assistance to protect refugees but until recently has balked at a military force.

REUTERS GT PM1110