By Pascal Fletcher
N'djamena - Chad's President Idriss Deby is willing to open dialogue with rebels fighting to oust him, including a possible amnesty, but his foes must accept polls this week expected to keep him in power, a senior minister said.
General Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, minister for territorial administration, dismissed threats by the rebels to disrupt Wednesday's election, which is being boycotted as a farce by several opposition parties in the central African oil producer.
He said an April 13 rebel raid on the capital N'Djamena, in which several hundred people were killed, was a "suicidal" attack by the insurgents, many of them child soldiers Chad says were recruited and armed by Sudan. Khartoum denies this.
The rebels, who raced to the capital from the eastern border region with Sudan in brand-new pickup trucks, had made a tactical error by failing to set up supply lines across hundreds of miles of desert and savannah, Nassour told Reuters.
Government forces waited for them and defeated them at the gates of N'Djamena, he added.
"There is no rebellion in any operational terms in Chad today, it's just dreams and adventures," Nassour said in an interview, adding government forces were in control of the country ahead of the vote, which would be held as planned.
Deby, a former army chief who took power in a 1990 revolt, presents himself as a guarantor of unity and stability in the former French colony, twice the size of France and plagued by ethnic feuding and conflict since independence in 1960.
Analysts say a victory on Wednesday for Deby, who faces a token challenge from four other candidates who are either allies or pose no real threat, is a foregone conclusion.
But they fear the extension of his nearly 16-year rule could trigger a civil war in Africa's fifth-largest country, which became an oil producer in 2003.
Nassour said Deby, "for the sake of Chad", had decided to try to end the rebellion against him after the election.
This included an offer of talks with rebel groups, which include several high-level civil and military deserters from Deby's own Zaghawa ethnic clan. They accuse the president of being corrupt and autocratic.
"We can take everybody back, the door is open, the hand is still outstretched," Nassour said. "We can talk about their participation in the construction of the country, an amnesty, the integration of their forces into the army."
But Nassour insisted the rebels, who say their common objective is to topple Deby, must accept the result of the May 3 election, respect Chad's existing state institutions and renounce the support of Sudan.
The offer is unlikely to impress the rebel leaders, who have threatened coordinated operations to disrupt the elections.
At the weekend, Timan Erdimi, a nephew of Deby and former close aide who leads a newly formed anti-Deby rebel group, the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), told Reuters rebel fighters were present around Guereda, Tissi and Adre in eastern Chad.
Nassour scoffed at this, saying the rebels had no serious military presence on Chadian territory.
The minister said Deby's offer of dialogue even extended to Mahamat Nour, chief of the rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), which Nassour described as "entirely in the pay of Sudan". Nour would have to give up Sudanese support and take part in the talks "as a Chadian", he added.
Deby's government has displayed Chinese military equipment captured in the April 13 fighting and prisoners with Sudanese identity papers it says demonstrate Khartoum's involvement.
The RAFD and FUC rebel groups said at the weekend they would cooperate in military operations. RAFD's Erdimi said combined rebel forces numbered more than 12 000.
Nassour acknowledged the rebels had "several thousand", including high-ranking deserters from Chad's army. But he said government forces had more than 50 000 and could muster double this through additional military mobilisation.
They were also receiving intelligence information from French forces, which include a squadron of Mirage jets, stationed in the country under a bilateral military accord.