the east of Chad's capital Ndjemena was still refusing to surrender Tuesday, officials said.

The government was negotiating with this "residual group", according to an official statement which came in the wake of a short-lived uprising by troops in a barracks in the capital of the central African country.

Authorities then said this mutiny had begun overnight Sunday and was put down without violence. Interim Defence Minister Emmanuel Nadingar said the government was completely in control.

But a statement published after a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday said "a residual group (of renegade soldiers) has left the city and taken refuge to the east of Ndjamena".

"While giving priority to talks with those mutineers who remain undecided, the government remains determined to maintain republican order and will be intransigent about this," the statement said.

Ndjamena was calm, according to an AFP correspondent.

An army officer, who asked not to be named, said the mutiny was triggered by measures President Idriss Deby took after paying surprise visits to barracks in February, when he "discovered that the army included non-existent troops whose pay was being pocketed by officers.

"There were also soldiers passing themselves off with higher ranks than they had, who were downgraded to their rightful status."

In the wake of his visits, Deby froze military pay and bonuses for two months and also had several military officers arrested, particularly among those in charge of pay for different wings of the Chadian National Army.

All soldiers were ordered back to their units and on the spot counts of their numbers took place. As a result of this census, the authorities found that the army's strength was about 19,000 men, instead of the 24,000 put forward in previous tallies.

WAR.WIRE