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By Moumine Ngarmbassa

N'DJAMENA, March 28 (Reuters) - Chad's judiciary gave President Idriss Deby the go-ahead on Friday to pardon six French aid workers jailed for abducting children, an official said. The six members of the Zoe's Ark charity were sentenced to eight years' hard labour by Chad late last year for trying to kidnap 103 African children and take them to Europe without permission from the authorities.

The charity workers were flown back to France in late December and allowed to serve their prison sentences there under a cooperation agreement.

France's diplomatic and military support helped Deby weather a rebel assault on the capital N'Djamena in early February, and the Chadian leader has since made it clear that he was ready to pardon the French aid workers.

"The Higher Judicial Council has given a favourable opinion on the request for a pardon," Justice Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke, who sits on the council which advises Deby on legal matters, told Reuters.

He declined to comment on when Deby, a former French-trained helicopter pilot, might sign a formal presidential pardon.

Zoe's Ark said throughout the affair that it was rescuing orphans from Sudan's Darfur region, a conflict zone across Chad's eastern border, and that it intended to fly them to foster homes in Europe.

Most of the children, however, were found to have come from families in Chadian border villages who had been persuaded to give up their offspring in exchange for promises of education.

Many people in France, upset by anti-French street protests in Chad, felt the group had been misguided and irresponsible, but not malevolent. The six aid workers staged a brief hunger strike during their trial in December.

France is the main contributor of troops to a 3,700-strong European Union peace force in eastern Chad which started a year-long mission this month to protect hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadian civilians. (Writing by Daniel Flynn; editing by Kevin Liffey)

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