The force was to be sent in November, early in the dry season when a rise in fighting was expected, to protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from strife-torn Darfur, but was delayed by a funding row and a lack of resources.

"The president of the republic has authorised the defence ministry to put additional means on the table," French defence ministry spokesman Laurent Teissere told reporters.

He said France made the offer to "help end a deadlock in discussions", and that its extra resources could include logistical support units, helicopters and transport aircraft.

In Brussels, an EU diplomat said: "We now expect the formal decision to launch the operation to be taken at the end of January and that straight after the first troops would arrive on the ground in the first week of February."

French Defence Minister Herve Morin said on a visit to Chad that he hoped the force -- with contributions from Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden -- would deploy before the end of this month.

The EUFOR Chad-CAR contingent is expected to total around 3,500 troops, with France providing the lion's share of at least 1,350 soldiers, and will be led from Europe by Irish General Pat Nash.

The mission has a UN Security Council mandate to help to back up some 300 UN police officers sent to monitor camps for Darfur refugees and internally displaced persons.

Some 234,000 Darfur refugees, along with 178,000 displaced eastern Chadians and 43,000 Central Africans also uprooted by strife and rebellion in the north of their country, are housed in camps in the region.

Many are in danger due to the insurgency there.

French troops have been present in Chad since 1986 and have routinely clashed with rebels there, and Paris had initially expressed concerns about having too big a role in the force.

Indeed members of the European Parliament and non-governmental organisations had also voiced fears that confusion could arise as to who belonged to the EU force and the French contingent, dubbed Epervier.

The problems with the force had centred on a reluctance among the 27 EU nations to provide around 10 helicopters, nine transport planes and three medical evacuation aircraft deemed vital for it to be launched.

Chad's hot, dusty climate in particular had put off potential contributors concerned about the damage to equipment like helicopters.

The force was also plagued by a funding row, with Britain -- its military stretched with deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan -- reluctant to pay.

Almost 100 million euros (147 million dollars) has been earmarked for the mission, but military officials say the real cost could be at least five times that sum.

A high-ranking EU military officer said in November that the operation was unfortunately only seen in the bloc as "category two" and that it would probably take some "political crisis" before the problem was resolved.

But on Friday, military officials will meet in Brussels to discuss the final contributions and pave the way for Nash to finally submit an operational plan for the mission, possibly to EU foreign ministers on January 28.

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