PARIS About 4,300 troops from 20 countries will take part in a European peacekeeping force to be deployed in Chad and the Central African Republic, its Irish commander said yesterday.

General Patrick Nash said that the force, the first units of which will be deployed this month, would help to secure refugee camps along the border with the Darfur region of Sudan, where fighting since 2003 is said to have left more than 200,000 dead and displaced 2 million. He said after talks with Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, that he was confident the mission would make a huge impact.

France will be providing the bulk of the force, which is to be finalised in Brussels in the coming days. Plans for the deployment are progressing despite tensions between France and Chad after a French charity was stopped from flying 103 children out of Darfur to place them with European families for adoption.

President Déby of Chad has told President Sarkozy that child abduction charges against ten Europeans should not jeopardise the peacekeeping mission. (AFP)

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