The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Ndjamena

Chad's president was Sunday holed up in his palace cornered by rebels who seized most of the capital as foreigners fled the country, military and rebel sources said.

organisations reported looting in the capital and bodies littering the streets, a French military plane took 74 French and other nationalities out of Ndjamena late Saturday.

They arrived early Sunday in the Gabon capital Libreville, saying they were exhausted but happy to flee the encroaching fighting.

The French military said 900 foreigners had gathered at three assembly points around the city. The United Nations said it planned to evacuate its personnel to Cameroon.

No death toll from the fighting has been given but a UN security official said there were a lot of bodies in the streets, "some burned, some just hacked" to death. France sent an extra 150 troops to help with the evacuations and French President Nicolas Sarkozy broke off from celebrating his wedding to twice telephone the west African nation's President Idriss Deby Itno.

The Libyan news agency, Jana, said that Mahamat Nouri, the main rebel leader, had accepted a ceasefire proposed by Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who was part of African Union efforts to halt the fighting.

But rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP that the acceptance was conditional on the two other rebel chiefs giving their blessing. "Colonel Kadhafi has not yet asked for their opinions," he said.

The rebel force in about 300 pickup trucks started moving across the desert from a base near the eastern border with Sudan on Monday but major fighting only erupted Friday as they neared the capital.

Rebels took over large sections of Ndjamena on Saturday, military and rebel sources said, having already seized outlying neighbourhoods and much of the city centre in intense fighting with government forces.

As dusk fell, only sporadic gunfire could be heard, but rebel spokesman Abakar Tollimi said before the ceasefire reports that there were plans to attack the presidential palace.

"We suppose that Deby is inside. If he wants to leave we have no problem," Tollimi told AFP by satellite telephone. "We control the situation, we control the city, there are some pockets of resistance."

A military source told AFP however that government forces were trying "to push the rebels back in the east of the city and take back some territory in the city centre."