Nairobi/N'Djamena - Chadian President Idriss Deby has Tuesday criticised European Union peacekeepers for failing to protect civilians as rebels forces continue to capture towns on their march toward the capital from the east.

The rebels began their advance on Saturday when they attacked the eastern town of Goz Beida, where thousands of refugees from Darfur are based.

Irish members of the EU protection force (EUFOR) came under fire during the attack, but no injuries were reported.

The rebels have since continued to drive toward the capital and on Monday captured the town of Biltine, around 750 kilometres away from the capital.

Deby accused the EU troops of "turning a blind eye" to the killing of civilians by the rebels.

"We have the right to ask ourselves about the effectiveness of such a force, of the usefulness of its presence in Chad," the BBC reported him as saying.

Hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees live in eastern Chad, and the United Nation's refugee agency UNHCR said that it was struggling to continue operations amid the deteriorating security conditions.

Chadian rebels have been fighting for two years to overthrow Deby, who they say is corrupt, and are attempting to reach the capital for the second time.

The fighting is unlikely to ease tensions between Sudan and Chad, which the UN has said are fighting a proxy war by supporting rebel groups on each other's soil.

Chad's Communication Minister Mahamat Hissene said that Sudan was supporting the rebels because it wanted to overthrow the Chadian government in order to "make sure that the Sudanese government can implement its policy in Darfur without any other country seeing what is going on."

Hundreds of thousands are believed to have died in the long conflict between rebels and government forces in Sudan's western Darfur province.

Sudan recently accused Chad of supporting Darfur rebels in an attack on the Sudanese capital Khartoum and severed economic ties. Chad responded by closing its border with Sudan. (dpa)