(WARSAW) - Four hundred Polish troops will be fully operational in the European Union's stabilisation mission in Chad by September, Poland's Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said Thursday.

"Our contingent will be sent to Chad after the rainy season ends and will be fully operational by September," Klich said in Warsaw at a joint press conference with French Defence Minister Herve Morin.

Klich said the first Polish troops would arrive in Chad in April and that "France is involved in preparing the ground for the future base of the Polish contingent."

"From June we will put in place the elements of the base that will allow for the staggered arrival of the entire Polish contingent," Morin confirmed.

Launched in January, the European Union's EUFOR stabilisation mission is slated to deploy 3,700 troops in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Authorised by UN Security Council resolution 1778 in September 2007, EUFOR aims to protect Sudanese refugees in neighbouring Darfur as well as displaced Chadians and citizens of the Central African Republic -- a total of 450,000 people.

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