BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - A much-delayed European Union peacekeeping mission to eastern Chad hopes to resume deployment next week, a spokesman for the force said on Friday after its suspension following a rebel attack on the Chadian capital. "We are working very hard on planning, with the hope that we can resume our flights to Chad next week," Lieutenant Colonel Philippe de Cussac said.

De Cussac could not say on which day the deployment would resume or how many troops would fly in. "It depends on the situation on the ground," he said in a phone interview from the force's Paris headquarters.

The EU had hoped its 3,700 peacekeepers would begin joining an advance party in eastern Chad last week, to begin the task of protecting half a million Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians who have fled violence spilling over from Sudan's Darfur region.

It suspended the move when rebels attacked the capital and tried to overthrow President Idriss Deby over the weekend.

Deby said on Wednesday his government had regained total control of the country and urged the EU on Thursday to deploy its forces quickly as his government tried to tighten security.

As calm returned to the dusty riverside capital, hundreds of refugees, who fled to Cameroon after the weekend clashes that killed at least 160 civilians, returned over the river border.

Aid workers said that as many as 850 people were being treated for bullet and mortar wounds. (Reporting by Ingrid Melander, editing by Tim Pearce)

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