By Peter Murphy

ABIDJAN, Dec 6 (Reuters) - European Union peacekeepers should start deploying in eastern Chad late this month or early next year but the force is lacking some key equipment, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said on Thursday.

An EU force of up to 3,700 soldiers, around half of them French, is due to deploy to the border region with Sudan's Darfur on a U.N. mission to protect several hundred thousand refugees and the aid workers caring for them.

But some EU countries have so far refused to make up a shortfall in vital resources, meaning the launch of the mission, originally mooted for early this month, has slipped.

"We hope the deployment of soldiers will be able to happen at the end of the year or the start of next year," Morin told French soldiers and reporters in Ivory Coast, where France still has peacekeepers following a 2002/03 civil war.

"We are making progress on the common financing, we're also making progress because Italy is going to provide the hospital structure. There are still a number of issues to be resolved such as air mobility, by which I mean helicopters," he said.

French General Henri Bentegeat, head of the EU's Military Committee, said last month the planned force lacked 10 helicopters, a third medical facility and other support assets.

"Europe has been asked to guarantee this mission. It is up to the Europeans to fulfil their obligations. It is a question of credibility for the Europeans," Morin said.

The force looks likely to arrive in the middle of a volatile period in eastern Chad, where government troops have been engaging at least three rebel factions in the heaviest fighting in months following the collapse of an Oct. 25 peace accord.

Both sides claim to have killed hundreds of enemy combatants in the fighting.

French troops stationed in Chad under a bilateral accord have been flying over the battle zone in recent days.

"We are fulfilling our obligations under the defence accord. We are not participating in combat," Morin said, without giving any further details.

Chad's rebels have declared a "state of war" against the French troops. But Morin dismissed their accusations that the EU force would be biased, saying the peacekeepers had a clearly defined mission to protect civilian refugees. (Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Stephen Weeks)

AlertNet news is provided by