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 In a speech broadcast on national radio and television, President Idriss Deby said he signed a decree increasing the government's powers for 15 days, beginning Friday, as provided for in Chad's constitution.
Deby said the decree instituted "measures important and urgent to maintain order, guarantee stability and assure the good functioning of the state."
Forces loyal to Deby battled rebels Feb. 2-3 in and around the capital of this former French colony in Central Africa.
The Red Cross said more than 160 people were killed and 1,000 wounded in the fighting, which reached the edge of the presidential palace before the rebels were driven out of N'Djamena and back toward Chad's eastern border with Sudan.
Deby's decree, which was read on the broadcast, said that as of Friday there will be "a state of emergency throughout the territory of the Republic of Chad."
The measure empowers regional governors to control the movement of people and vehicles, bans most meetings, allows the government to control what is published in the press, and imposes a curfew from midnight to 6 a.m.
"These are exceptional measures, but I must do this to assure the regular functioning of the state," Deby said, calling on regional governors to "mobilize all their means
-- human and material -- to help restore public order."
After the 15-day period, the national assembly decides whether to allow an extension of the state of emergency.
Earlier Thursday, French officials said the rebels were hovering around the town of Goz Beida, in a region where European Union peacekeepers are to deploy over the next three months to protect refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Officials also acknowledged French forces delivered Libyan munitions to Chad's army during the fighting, illustrating the strength of France's backing for Deby. France has said its troops based in Chad did not take part in combat.
French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck told reporters Thursday that French troops did fire about 10 times, but only in self-defense. Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades against French military positions near N'Djamena airport, and French troops responded with "proportionate" firepower to repel them, he said.
During the fighting, French troops guarded the airport that was vital as the base for the helicopter gunships that allowed Chad's military to drive the rebels out of N'Djamena. The rebels have no air power. France has some 1,900 troops in N'Djamena.
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 Even before Deby's decree, the government had started very publicly reasserting its control in the capital.
On Wednesday, authorities paraded 135 alleged rebel prisoners, some said to be as young as 15, charging they were Sudanese mercenaries paid by neighboring Sudan and al-Qaida fighters. The government produced little evidence to support its claim.
The governments of Sudan and Chad regularly trade accusations that the other is supporting rebel movements in their neighbor's territory. Analysts say each country supports rebels hostile to the other.
Deby's government has been conducting house-to-house searches in the capital looking for rebels.
"In the Chagoua quarter, near my home, all the shopowners had to submit to searches yesterday," said Gaston Wazoune, a university student in N'Djamena.
Late Thursday, France said its Ambassador Bruno Foucher was allowed to visit opposition leader Lol Mahamat Choua in a military prison in the capital. Foucher also was assured that the International Committee of the Red Cross would be allowed to visit Choua on Friday.
Rights groups have said Choua was one of three opposition leaders arrested during the attack on the capital.
Interior Minister Mahamat Ahmat Bachir initially claimed the three disappeared while their homes were in rebel hands. But he later said the government was opening a judicial inquiry into their whereabouts, saying it was possible they were in hiding.
The French statement did not mention the other detained politicians.
[Associated
Press; By DANZOUMBE PADIRE]
Associated Press writers Jamey Keaton in Paris and Halime Assadya Ali in N'Djamena contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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