The former President of Chad, Hissen Habre, has been charged in Senegal with acts of torture and barbarity - setting the stage for Africa's first Pinochet-style human rights trial.

It is the first time a former African head of state has been brought to court in another country on human rights offences.

Lawyers said it could be a test case on a continent where such abuses of power have been rife.

Human rights campaigners said they were inspired by the battle in the United Kingdom to extradite the former Chilean military leader, Augusto Pinochet, who is wanted on torture charges in Spain.

Mr Habre, who has lived in exile in Senegal since being overthrown in 1990, is accused of killing and torturing thousands of political opponents.

"He has been indicted and placed under house arrest for acts of torture and barbarity," said Boucounta Diallo, a lawyer acting for human rights groups that brought the case.

Mr Habre made no comment on leaving the court, but his lawyer has said the former leader denies the charges, blaming them on "political machinations".

No date has been set for the trial.

US backing

Hissen Habre ruled the Sahara Desert state with the backing of the United States, which at the time saw him as a counterbalance to Colonel Gaddafi of Libya.

He has lived in exile in Dakar since being overthrown in 1990.

Ibrahim Kane, a Senegalese human rights activist, said Chad's current rulers "were working with Habre so it was really difficult for them to try him in his own country, so the best way was to try him in Senegal.

But the present Chad government last week claimed credit for unearthing the evidence again the former ruler.

It said it had wanted to try Habre at home but had failed to persuade the Senegalese authorities to extradite him.

'Murders'

A commission it set up in 1991 accused Habre's administration of being responsible for 40,000 political murders and 200,000 cases of torture.

Senegal began proceedings after seven human rights groups had filed a criminal complaint on behalf of tens of thousands of people they say were tortured or killed by his men.

The groups said they had detailed 97 cases of political killings, 142 cases of torture and 100 "disappearances".

In earlier court hearings, witnesses brought specially from Chad told of being tortured by Mr Habre's forces.