(Adds quotes from U.S. officials, paragraphs 8-11)

By Betel Miarom

N'DJAMENA, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. evangelical church missionary working on a U.S. government-backed development project in northern Chad has been kidnapped by rebels, Chadian and U.S. officials said on Thursday.

"The governor of the northern BET region has told me that an American priest has been kidnapped in the Tibesti (mountains) by remaining members of the MDJT rebel movement," Secretary of State for the Interior Abderamane Djasnabaille told Reuters.

"The rebels took his vehicle and they are holding him at Zoumri," he added.

A leader of Chad's Evangelical Church, Pastor Ngardei Bako, identified the kidnapped American as Steve Godbold and said he had worked in Chad, especially Tibesti, for many years.

He said Godbold was seized earlier this month. Other people in his group were also abducted but later released, Bako said.

Djasnabaille said negotiations were under way with rebels of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad (MDJT) to obtain the release of the kidnapped missionary.

A source close to MDJT factional leader Aboubakar Choua Dazi told Reuters Godbold was suspected of working for Chadian intelligence and would be released if, after he was questioned, the group was convinced that was not the case.

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in N'Djamena said Godbold had been "detained by a non-government armed group".

"We do not know the motive for the detention. We are in touch with Chad's government and have requested their assistance in resolving the situation," he told Reuters.

SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE

Other U.S. officials, who asked not be identified, said Godbold was working as a sub-contractor on a U.S. government-financed development project to drill water wells in the Tibesti region.

"He was chosen because he knew the region and spoke the local Toubou language," one official said. Godbold had been able to contact his family, the U.S. officials said.

The MDJT was formed in 1998, when it launched an armed insurgency in northern Chad under the leadership of President Idriss Deby's former defence chief, Youssouf Togoimi.

It fought sporadic battles with government forces in the remote region, which has the highest mountains in the Sahara, before signing a peace deal in August 2005. A splinter faction of the group refused to sign.

The MDJT attracted international attention in 2005 when it captured Amar Saifi, then the second most powerful man in Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an Islamist group which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda and is classed by Washington as a terrorist organisation.

Saifi, also known as el Para, and a dozen of his followers were captured by the MDJT after fleeing neighbouring countries. Believed to have a wealth of information on rebel activities, he was handed over to the Libyan authorities after protracted negotiations before being taken into custody in Algeria.

The GSPC renamed itself Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb in January 2007 and in subsequent months carried out several suicide bombings that killed dozens, including a failed attempt to assassinate President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Various rebel groups are waging a campaign against Deby further south on Chad's eastern border with Sudan's Darfur. Although the MDJT is not believed to have direct operational links with those groups, it has voiced support for them.

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