N'DJAMENA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A Chadian rebel leader whose forces attacked the capital N'Djamena in April met President Idriss Deby on Sunday in an apparent reconciliation move, presidency sources said. They said Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, who had led the now badly split rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), was received by Deby at Guereda, an eastern town near the Sudan border which saw recent fighting between government troops and rebels from other anti-Deby groups. These other groups, the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD), and the Platform for Change, National Unity and Democracy (SCUD), were continuing their rebellion against Deby's rule, the sources, who asked not to be named, said. "President Deby has received Mahamat Nour. He (Nour) has run out of steam, he's coming back (to the government side)," one of the sources told Reuters. Nour's FUC rebel coalition carried out a daring attack on N'Djamena in April, which was repulsed by government forces just weeks before a presidential election which returned Deby for a fresh term in office. He has ruled the landlocked central African oil producer since seizing power in 1990. Deby accused neighbouring Sudan of backing and arming Nour's FUC rebels, a charge denied by Khartoum. But since the April attack, the FUC splintered into factions and other rebel leaders criticised Nour as a poor commander. At the end of November, Nour made a statement calling for a national political dialogue in Chad. In contrast, the other groups, UFDD, RAFD and SCUD and others, have intensified their military campaign against Deby in recent weeks, attacking and briefly seizing a series of towns in eastern Chad. Chad's army said on Friday it had driven the rebels back into Sudan, inflicting heavy casualties. But at least one rebel spokesman denied this, saying rebel fighters were still on Chadian soil and would strike again. There was no immediate reaction from the other rebel groups to Nour's meeting with Deby.
