ABECHE, Chad, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The scandal over a French group accused of trying to illegally fly African children from Chad to Europe will not affect the deployment of a European peace force in eastern Chad, the government said on Wednesday.

Chad's authorities have brought abduction and fraud charges against nine French and seven Spanish nationals they say were trying to transport the children, believed to be from Chad and Sudan, to Europe without official authorisation.

The case of the French, members of a group called Zoe's Ark which said it wanted to place orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur with European families, is an embarrassment for France which is a longstanding ally of Chadian President Idriss Deby.

France has troops stationed in Chad and will provide roughly half of a European Union peacekeeping force of up to 3,000 troops that will be deployed in Chad's violent eastern region in the coming weeks to protect Sudanese and Chadian refugees there.

A senior Chadian official told Radio France International the controversy over the children would not affect the EU peacekeeping mission, which complements a wider international peace initiative for Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region.

"When this affair erupted, the president gave assurances once again to French authorities that this case of transporting children would not call into question the deployment of the European force ... that is clear," Mahamat Hissene, Deby's presidential chief of staff, said.

"We are in favour of the arrival of this force," Hissene added, dismissing speculation in French political and media circles that Chad might be seeking an excuse to block the deployment of the EU mission.

"We have no conflict with the French authorities to be seeking this kind of means of pressure," Hissene told RFI.

The EU force, which will be led by an Irish lieutenant-general, is tasked with providing protection for around 400,000 Sudanese refugees and Chadian civilians who are sheltering in eastern Chad from violence spilling over the border from Darfur.

While the Zoe's Ark group say they were seeking to give better lives to orphans from Darfur, United Nations and French officials said it appeared many of the children, aged 3 to 10 years old, were from Chad and many were not orphans.

A Chadian prosecutor has said the French accused, who include two journalists, would if convicted face hard labour sentences of five to 20 years.

Seven Spanish crew members of the plane chartered by Zoe's Ark were charged as accessories, along with two Chadians.

The 16 Europeans were arrested on Thursday as they tried to fly the children out of Abeche in eastern Chad. A Belgian pilot was detained separately but has not yet been charged.

AlertNet news is provided by