"The small group of mutineers ... surrendered and returned to the capital on Tuesday evening," he told AFP. "They spent the night at the Chadian army headquarters."

"Their return to legal status is the outcome of negotiations which began within hours of their taking refuge to the east of the capital," Dahab added, without specifying that every one of a group of soldiers who began a mutiny on Sunday night had surrendered.

On Monday, Interim Defence Minister Emmanuel Nadingar had said that the government of the central African country was completely in control after a short-lived uprising, which was quashed without violence.

But President Idriss Deby headed an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday and the government then announced that a "residual group" of renegades had gone to the east of the city.

Ndjamena itself has been calm since Tuesday morning, with no unusual military deployment on the streets after the soldiers and armour posted at strategic spots on Monday returned to their barracks.

"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," Tuesday's official statement said.

Nadingar described the uprising as a mutiny by troops driven by "social and other needs". Chad is one of the poorest countries in Africa, largely arid desert in the sub-Saharan north, but recently a beneficiary of the discovery of oil reserves in the south.

The arrested "ringleaders", Nadingar added, included senior officers of the Republican Guard unit, President Deby's personal guard and the Chadian Nomad and National Guard.

While the government gave no names, Chadian and foreign observers noted that the leaders of these military units are all close to the head of state and held to be among Deby loyalists, thus raising the possibility that differences may have arisen within the inner circles of power in Chad.

Dissent has also been apparent within Deby's own Zaghawa ethnic group, where some have expressed concern about the president's handling about a cross-border crisis in Sudan's Darfur province.

Many Zaghawa traditionally live in Darfur, which is in the grip of a rebellion against Sudan's government dominated by Arabised Muslims. Khartoum has been accused by fleeing local people, a UN human rights report, and non-governmental agencies of backing local Arab militias in the massacring of black African local villagers.

About 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the crackdown against the rebels, while around one million have been driven from their homes, either displaced elsewhere in Sudan or trekking in the tens of thousands across the border into Chad.

In a mediation bid, the Deby government has brought about a fragile ceasefire in Darfur, which each side accuses the other of breaching.

Initially, an army officer, who asked not to be named, said Chad's mutiny was triggered by measures 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."

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.

After a 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