By Moumine Ngarmbassa and Emmanuel Braun
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad's government is in total control of the country after beating off a rebel offensive, President Idriss Deby said on Wednesday as France's defence minister flew in to show his support.
Making his first public appearance since rebels attacked the capital N'Djamena at the weekend and besieged his presidential palace, Deby accused the president of neighbouring Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, of backing the rebel offensive.
"We have total control of the situation, not only in the capital, but also the whole country," Deby, wearing military uniform, told a news conference at his palace in N'Djamena after meeting French Defence Minister Herve Morin.
Morin's visit came as France, which has warplanes and more than 1,000 troops stationed in its former colony, threw its weight behind Deby. He has fought off several bids by rebels to end his 18-year rule in the central African oil producer.
In Rome, Pope Benedict added his voice to international calls for an end to the conflict in Chad, which relief officials said was blocking aid flights to more than half a million refugees and civilians in the east displaced by violence.
Initially calling itself "neutral" as fighting raged at the weekend, former colonial ruler France has moved to back Deby.
After obtaining U.N. Security Council support for Deby's government, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday his country could intervene if needed against the rebels, whom Chad says are supported by Sudan. Khartoum denies this.
Rebel forces said they were still occupying positions "around N'Djamena" and vowed to fight any French intervention.
"If we are attacked, then we have the right to legitimately defend ourselves," rebel spokesman Ali Ordjo Hemchi said.
"We ask France to remain neutral, on the side of the Chadian people, and not on the side of a failed regime," he added, saying he was speaking from Chad outside N'Djamena.
He said rebel forces had routed early on Wednesday a column of pro-Deby "Toro-boro" Sudanese rebels north east of the capital, but there was no independent confirmation of this.
Deby's government said it had defeated its Chadian rebel foes, who had made a lightning advance last week from the eastern border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. The rebels said they had pulled back and would strike again.
N'Djamena was calm on Wednesday. Ambulance workers collected the bodies of those killed in the weekend fighting, which injured hundreds of people.
The British charity Save the Children said civilian aid flights between N'Djamena and the east had been halted and it called on the United Nations to organise urgent supply airlifts from neighbouring Cameroon and Central African Republic.
RESIDENTS RETURNING
"It has to happen within 48 hours," said Gareth Owen, Save the Children's Head of Emergencies. "Otherwise the humanitarian aid effort will start to unravel," he added.
The increased conflict has delayed the deployment of a 3,700-strong European Union peacekeeping force to east Chad to protect thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who have fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur.
Tens of thousands of N'Djamena residents fled south into Cameroon and Nigeria after the weekend fighting, but hundreds started returning on Wednesday after the Chadian government made TV and radio broadcasts saying it was safe to come back.
"I am going home because the situation seems to be stabilised. We heard it on the radio, so that's why we're going home to see," said Issara Hassan, a student.
A Chadian police officer with a megaphone told the crowd at the border: "Come back home. N'Djamena is at peace".
French warplanes have been flying reconnaissance missions over rebel positions and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday that a rebel force of between 100 and 200 vehicles was still somewhere east of the capital.
Kouchner said the U.N. Security Council statement had created an obligation to support Deby's government, which he said had been the target of a coup bid by the rebels.
"This is a legally elected government of President Idriss Deby -- twice elected in fact -- brutally attacked by Chadians, it's true, but who came from Sudan," he told Europe 1 radio.
