France's military presence in Chad has ended following the departure of two combat jets and a tanker aeroplane from the capital N'Djamena.

"France is putting an end to its detachment of fighter planes at the Kossei airbase," a French military source told the French news agency AFP.

"The French army has taken the decision to remove its planes."

Chad had been a key link in France's military presence in Africa and its last foothold in the wider Sahel region after the forced withdrawal of its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the wake of a series of military coups.

On 28 November, hours after a visit by France's Foreign Affairs Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, Chadian authorities announced the end to the security and defence agreements that had linked it with France since the end of the colonial era in 1960.

The declaration caught Paris off guard. But Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Déby was quick to emphasise the move did not mean severing ties.

'Not a rejection'

"The decision in no way constitutes a rejection of international cooperation or a calling into question of our diplomatic relations with France," he said.

"It is not a question of replacing one power with another."

Chad - the last country in the Sahel to host French forces - had been home to around 1,000 French troops at bases in N'Djamena, Abéché and Faya-Largeau.

Déby has sought closer ties with Russia in recent months but talks to strengthen economic cooperation have yet to bear concrete results.