French President Nicolas Sarkozy headed to Chad yesterday to discuss 16 Europeans (nine French and seven Spanish) facing charges for trying to fly 103 African children to Europe, a presidential spokesman said, raising hopes some suspects could soon be freed.

Six of the French belong to a group called Zoe?s Ark, which has said that it intended to place orphans from Darfur with European families for foster care and that it had the right to do so under international law. The three others are journalists.

On its Web site, Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted Spanish diplomatic sources in Chad as saying the four stewardesses would be freed and dropped off by Sarkozy in Madrid where he will be met by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Sarkozy has personally appealed to Chad?s President Idriss Deby to free the French journalists and urged a mutually satisfactory solution ?so that no one loses face?. The affair is an embarrassment for former colonial ruler France, which is an ally of Chad and has troops and aircraft stationed in the landlocked country.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon asked Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Defence Minister Herve Morin on Saturday to launch investigations into the case.

Kerstin GEHMLICH