  One of the main goals of the COROT mission is to get precise photometric
observations of selected bright stars in order to allow the modelling of their
interior through asteroseismology. However, in order to interpret the
asteroseismological data, the effective temperature, surface gravity, and
chemical composition of the stars must be known with sufficient accuracy. To
carry out this task, we have developed a spectroscopic method called APASS
(Atmospheric Parameters and Abundances from Synthetic Spectra) which allows
precise analysis of stars with a moderate to high rotational velocity, which is
the case for most primary COROT targets. Our method is based on synthetic
spectra and works differentially with respect to the Sun. Using high
signal-to-noise spectra and the APASS method, we determined the atmospheric
parameters and chemical abundances of 13 primary COROT targets. Our results
agree well with those obtained by Bruntt using his software VWA and with those
obtained with the software TEMPLOGG. However, in both cases, our error bars are
significantly smaller than those of other methods. Our effective temperatures
are also in excellent agreement with those obtained with the IR photometry
method. For five stars with relatively low rotational velocity, we also
performed an analysis with a classical equivalent-width method to test
agreement with APASS results. We show that equivalent-width measurements by
Gaussian or Voigt profile-fitting are sensitive to the rotational broadening,
leading to systematic errors whenever the projected rotation velocity is
non-negligible. The APASS method appears superior in all cases and should thus
be preferred.
