According to French army chief of staff in Paris said French military authorities had identified the legionnaire of French Guyana origin -while in Chadian custody.

Lieutenant Colonel Francois-Marie Gougeon confirmed that he was arrested by Chadian gendarmes in the Abeche region.

Helicopters and troops from European Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions, as well as local police, had been hunting the man since last week.

The fugitive had also killed a Chadian farmer for his horse, taking flight across semi-desert terrain.

There was no information as to where the man was detained.

The 27-year-old private is attached to the European force which is handing over peacekeeping responsibilities to the UN contingent in the north-central African desert state.

UN agencies highly active in the Abeche region, where camps are home to some 450,000 Sudanese refugees and displaced Chadians, had ordered local staff to avoid travel because of the risk of running into the renegade.

French Defence Minister, Herve Morin, said the authorities had no explanation for the soldier's killing spree "other than that he flipped."

The minister insisted that the soldier had undergone a series of psychiatric tests before being accepted into the Legion in February 2007 and that none of the examinations had hinted at problems.

But a French officer is reported to have said the man had gone AWOL on an earlier mission in Djibouti and was tracked in neighbouring Ethiopia.