However, Africa's fifth-largest nation suffers from inadequate infrastructure and simmering internal conflict. Poverty is rife, and health and social conditions compare unfavourably with those elsewhere in the region.

OVERVIEW

Chad's post-independence history has been marked by instability and violence stemming mostly from tension between the mainly Arab-Muslim north and the predominantly negro-Christian south.

In 1969 Muslim dissatisfaction with the first president, Ngarta Tombalbaye - a Christian southerner - developed into a guerrilla war. This, combined with a severe drought, undermined his rule, and in 1975 President Tombalbaye was killed in a coup led by another southerner, Felix Malloum.

Mr Malloum, too, failed to end the war, and in 1979 he was replaced by a Libyan-backed northerner, Goukouki Oueddei. But the war continued, this time with a former defence minister, Hissen Habre, on the opposite side.

In 1982, with French help, Mr Habre captured the capital, N'Djamena, and Oueddei escaped to the north, where he formed a rival government. The standoff ended in 1990, when Mr Habre was toppled by the Libyan-backed Idriss Deby.

By the mid-1990s the situation had stabilised somewhat, and in 1996 Mr Deby was confirmed president in Chad's first election.

In 1998 an armed insurgency began in the north, led by President Deby's former defence chief, Youssouf Togoimi. A Libyan-brokered peace deal in 2002 failed to put an end to the fighting.

In 2003 and 2004, unrest in neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region spilled across the border, along with many thousands of refugees.

Chad became an oil-producing country in 2003, with the completion of a pipeline linking its oilfields to terminals on the Atlantic coast. The country hopes to avoid the corruption that oil has given rise to in other African nations; a law requires that 80% of oil revenues should be spent on development projects.

FACTS

• Population: 9.1 million (UN, 2005)
• Capital: N'Djamena
• Area: 1.28 million sq km (495,800 sq miles)
• Major languages: French, Arabic
• Major religions: Islam, Christianity
• Life expectancy: 42 years (men), 45 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) franc = 100 centimes
• Main exports: Cotton, oil, livestock, textiles
• GNI per capita: US $240 (World Bank, 2005)
• Internet domain: .td
• International dialling code: +235

LEADERS

President: Idriss Deby

President Deby: Inaugurated multi-party constitution

Idriss Deby, a former coup leader, won Chad's first post-independence presidential election in 1996 after overseeing the introduction of a multi-party constitution. He was re-elected in 2001.

Born in 1952, Mr Deby, a career army officer, helped Hissen Habre topple Goukouki Oueddei in 1982.

In 1989 he fled to Sudan after being accused of plotting a coup. A year later his Patriotic Salvation Movement drove Mr Habre into exile and in 1991 Mr Deby was proclaimed president.

Voters have backed a change to the constitution which will allow Mr Deby to stand for a third term in 2006. The opposition cried foul over the June 2005 referendum.