Sarkozy and three freed French journalists arrived at a military airport near Paris yesterday, after Sarkozy?s plane had dropped off four released Spanish flight attendants in Madrid. ?We?re very relieved,? journalist Marc Garmirian told reporters at the French airport.

The freed Europeans were among 16 French and Spanish nationals arrested 10 days ago as they tried to fly 103 African children to Europe. Six members of French group Zoe?s Ark are charged with fraud and abduction. Three members of a Spanish air crew are charged as accessories, as is a Belgian pilot who was arrested later.

Sarkozy, who had flown to Chad?s capital N?Djamena to intervene on behalf of the Europeans, said at a joint news conference with Chad?s President Idriss Deby France had confidence in the Chadian state and the Chadian justice system. But he also said he would rather see French people tried in French courts and said there would be discussions between their judiciaries to find ?within weeks, an outcome which respects Chadian justice and gives full guarantees to all parties. Relations between Chad and France are good and ... this rather lamentable escapade has nothing to do with the deployment of the European force in Chad,? Sarkozy said.

<B>Border region</B>

France, the former colonial power, has troops stationed in Chad and will provide about half of up to 3,000 European Union forces that will deploy in the violent eastern region in coming weeks to protect Sudanese and Chadian refugees. Deby said there was ?never a question about refusing the arrival of the European forces?.

Sarkozy?s jet with the seven freed Europeans stopped at the Torrejon military airbase just outside Madrid, where the Spanish flight attendants were greeted by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and family members. ?I want to express my great satisfaction that our four citizens have returned,? Zapatero said. ?Both France and Spain will now turn all of their diplomatic and political attention to securing the release of the remaining prisoners.?

The Europeans were arrested in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche, near the border with Sudan?s war-torn Darfur region, as they sought to fly out the children aged between one and 10.

Chad accused the group of trying to abduct the children, but Zoe?s Ark has said 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.

UN and Chadian officials say most of the infants had come from families with at least one parent living on the violent Chad-Sudan border, contradicting the ?war orphans? description of the children given by Zoe?s Ark.