(Recasts with government denying threat, Islamist accusation) By Stephanie Hancock and Betel Miarom N'DJAMENA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Chad's government denied diplomatic reports of a rebel column moving on its capital on Sunday after an attack on an eastern town, insisting N'Djamena was in no danger. France, which has ground forces and warplanes stationed in the unstable central African country, told its citizens by radio that a rebel column was moving westwards towards N'Djamena. "Contrary to reports of the presence of a so-called column of rebels 400 km (250 miles) from the capital, N'Djamena, the government categorically denies this information. It also reassures the population that N'Djamena is in no way threatened," the government said in a statement. Later France played down the threat, saying the column was no longer advancing but was still in Batha province, which could put it anywhere from 250 to 600 km (150 to 375 miles) from N'Djamena, and saying its school in the capital would open on Monday. In April, a French warplane helped fight off a rebel attack on the capital, which killed hundreds of people, by firing warning shots on a rebel column advancing on the city. Rebels have attacked border settlements and strategic towns this year as conflict raging across the border in Darfur fans a cat-and-mouse rebellion against Chad's President Idriss Deby. Deby's government widened its rhetoric against neighbouring Sudan to include Saudi Arabia, accusing both countries on Sunday of an Islamist offensive by backing ex-defence minister Mahamat Nouri's rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), which attacked the eastern town of Abeche on Saturday. "This operation bears the hallmarks of Sudan and Saudi Arabia, in whose madrasas (Islamic schools) the 13-17 year-old wahabites who make up 60 percent of Mahamat Nouri's forces which attacked Abeche, were recruited," a government statement said. Chad has declared a state of emergency after ethnic attacks on eastern villages by Arab raiders it says have Sudanese support. Sudan has denied backing Chadian rebels, and in return accused Deby of supporting Sudanese rebels in Darfur. EASTERN ATTACK STOKES FEARS Reports of the rebel convoy's advance towards N'Djamena fuelled fears of a new rebel assault on the capital. Witnesses said large numbers of soldiers and army vehicles were on the city's streets, including military vehicles heading out of town including along the main highway eastwards. Earlier on Sunday government forces retook Abeche, 160 km (100 miles) from the border with Sudan, from UFDD rebels. "Abeche has been taken in its totality ... The rebels fled at 4 a.m. (0300 GMT)," Defence Minister Bichara Issa Djadallah told Reuters in N'Djamena. Aid workers said Abeche, the hub of a massive aid effort to help 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur, was calm, but government buildings and humanitarian stores had been looted. A few shots were heard, but aid workers said there was no sign of fighting or of any remaining rebel presence in the town. "It's too early to speculate why they left, but what is certain is that this is not the end of the matter," said a diplomatic source in N'Djamena who declined to be named. Some 150 French troops stayed throughout at a camp by Abeche airport, French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said. "We are sticking to our original mission which is to give Chad authorities logistical, intelligence and communications support. This mission has not changed," Prazuck said in Paris. (Additional reporting by Astrid Wendlandt in Paris)
