Further blow for Chad peace force

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Chad will not allow the UN to send an advance mission to the country to prepare for deployment of peacekeepers.

Some 70 military liaison officers and police were due later this month.

A BBC correspondent says the president may fear the mission will convince him to talk with rebels who oppose him in the lawless east which borders Sudan.

The UN has approved funding for an 11,000-strong force, although Chad's government has said it now only wants a police operation, not a military one.

The United Nations force is intended to secure refugees camps for people who fled the conflict in neighbouring Darfur region in Sudan and to bring stability to the east of the country which has been wracked by ethnic violence.

Some 120,000 Chadians have fled their homes to join more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees already living in camps.

U-turn

The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in the capital, N'Djamena, says the news will be a further blow to the UN, which is already reeling from last week's surprise announcement that Chad will not accept a military force on its soil.

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Chad's President Idriss Deby had been in favour of bringing in UN troops, but now he appears to have done a U-turn, she says.

It is thought he has concerns that political advisers who would be part of a UN mission may try to persuade him to open up a dialogue with rebels who are trying to overthrow him, an idea he is firmly against.

Our reporter says he is also said to be worried about what UN troops may witness his army's battles to deal with rebel forces in eastern Chad.

The Chadian government has accused Sudan of backing the rebels ? a charge Sudan denies ? while Chad denies Sudanese claims that it supports black African rebels in Darfur.

President Deby, a former coup leader, won a third term in presidential elections in May 2006.