By Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - The U.N. peacekeeping chief urged the European Union on Tuesday to send troops and helicopters to protect refugees and aid workers in eastern Chad as part of efforts to contain violence spreading from Darfur.

Jean-Marie Guehenno hoped EU foreign ministers would signal next Monday that the bloc would be ready to deploy highly mobile troops by the end of 2007, for about a year, to protect a zone 900 km long by 200-400 km (560 by 125-250 miles) in Chad.

"There is a humanitarian urgency in Chad," Guehenno told Reuters in an interview in Brussels.

Deteriorating security has complicated aid efforts in recent weeks, he said.

"Hence the interest of a joint EU-UN effort," said Guehenno, U.N. undersecretary-general in charge of peacekeeping.

The United Nations would train and support Chadian police while the European Union would protect civilians and the U.N. mission, he said.

Guehenno was in Brussels to press EU ambassadors on the issue ahead of a July 23 meeting of EU foreign ministers. He said he expected ministers to send "a strong signal" that would allow the United Nations to begin detailed mission planning.

In Darfur, at least 200,000 people are estimated to have died and over 2 million chased from their homes since fighting flared in 2003 when African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudan government in a conflict over resources.

Eastern Chad has some 230,000 Sudanese refugees and more than 170,000 of its own citizens displaced as a consequence of the conflict, with over 700,000 more affected by violence, Guehenno said.

MOBILITY THE KEY

The U.N. is considering sending about 300 policemen to train and manage some 850 Chadian policemen and gendarmes, adding planning was still at a preliminary stage, Guehenno said.

He declined to say how big the EU force should be, but said as 27-nation bloc wanted to send a limited number of troops, the force would need to be sufficiently mobile to compensate.

"The key to success is not in large numbers but in the capacity to react quickly," Guehenno said. "We'll certainly need an important air, helicopter, component in the EU force."

Guehenno hoped the EU would agree to deploy its force for about a year. He said France, Chad's former colonial ruler which has air and ground forces stationed there, would send a large share of the troops and other EU states would also participate.

He hoped the EU-U.N. mission in Chad could be deployed at about the same time as a hybrid 26,000-strong U.N.- African Union force planned for Darfur itself.

"We should coordinate deployment so that they happen all in all in parallel," he said. "That should be in the last part of this year, probably."

Guehenno said the EU military mission in Chad would also cover a small part of the Central African Republic, around the northeastern town of Birao, which has suffered rebel attacks.

In June Chad's President Idriss Deby rebuffed a French proposal to set up a humanitarian corridor through Chad's violent east to get help to Darfur's refugees, but later dropped his opposition to foreign military intervention.

"To start with (Deby) was not in favour of a military presence but he has been convinced ... today we have an agreement in principle," Guehenno said.

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