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Chad not to expel refugees

N'DJAMENA (Chad): President Idriss Deby, heeding international calls to protect refugees from Sudan's volatile Darfur region, on Monday backed off a threat to expel them despite blaming Khartoum for last week's deadly rebel attack on the capital.

Mr. Deby's Government also extended a deadline for halting oil production, saying it welcomed U.S. help in resolving a dispute with the World Bank over oil payments.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in Geneva that Mr. Deby had given assurances that his country would abide by international refugee law and not force the Sudanese out.

``President Deby expressed his understandable concern about the difficulties involved in providing security both to the refugees and to the humanitarian organisations that are helping them,'' Mr. Guterres said on Monday after a telephone conversation with Mr. Deby the previous night.

Mr. Deby had announced on Friday — the day after a rebel attack on N'Djamena — that he was severing relations with Sudan and threatened to expel 200,000 Sudanese refugees if the international community did not do more to stop what he claimed were Sudanese backed-rebels from destabilising his Government before the May 3 presidential election. — AP

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