Austria to send 160 troops to EU mission in Chad

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria will send up to 160 troops to join the European Union's peacekeeping operation protecting civilians in eastern Chad, the defense ministry said on Tuesday.

"We will help give the refugees a feeling of security so that they can return to their villages." Defence Minister Norbert Darabos said in a statement.

The EU force, expected to number up to 3,000 troops from several European states, is supposed to shield civilians in eastern Chad, which has seen a spillover across the border from the 4-year-old conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Austria, which is not a NATO member, has contingents in several peacekeeping operations, most of them in Kosovo and Bosnia and on the Golan Heights.

France, Ireland, Poland and Sweden have already pledged soldiers to the EU force and troops will be deployed this month.

Eastern Chad has some 230,000 Sudanese refugees and more than 170,000 of its own citizens displaced as a consequence of the conflict, with more than 700,000 others affected by violence, according to the United Nations.

(Reporting by Boris Groendahl; editing by Golnar Motevalli)