BRUSSELS, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The European Union approved outline military plans on Tuesday for the deployment of an EU mission in Chad to help protect refugees from Sudan's Darfur conflict, an EU official said. EU ambassadors backed a "crisis management concept" to provide security for civilians and aid workers, help stabilise eastern Chad and make it easier for humanitarian assistance to get through. The mission could see up to 4,000 troops on the ground in Eastern Chad and a small adjoining area of the Central African Republic by year-end, the EU official said. The 27 EU member states are expected to rubber-stamp later this week the concept of operations agreed by ambassadors on Tuesday. Ministers will take a final decision to launch the joint action later this month after the U.N. Security Council has given green light for the mission. Some 380,000 civilians are sheltering in eastern Chad. Most fled the civil war in Sudan but about 150,000 are local people forced from their homes as ethnic conflict has spilled over the border. The European deployment and support for a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeing force in Darfur would help create the security conditions for renewed peace talks on the confict, due to begin in Libya on Oct. 27. If all goes to plan, deployment for the EU mission would start at the end of the rainy season, in mid-October, and would be complete by year-end. The bulk of the troops will be French and its operational headquarter will be in Paris, the official said.
