No change in French nuclear arms policy

VERSAILLES, France - President Jacques Chirac today laughed off concerns that France has lowered its threshold for using nuclear weapons, saying there had been no change in policy.

Chirac said last week France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack or used weapons of mass destruction against it.

He laughed and smiled when a German reporter asked about his comments during a news conference following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Versailles, west of Paris.

"There has been no lowering of the nuclear threshold," Chirac said. "No one in Germany should be the least bit worried ... Under no circumstances are nuclear weapons battle weapons."

Chirac's comments last week provoked a strong reaction from newspapers in Germany, with most condemning French "sabre rattling" and identifying Iran as the intended target of the remarks.

German opposition politicians called on Merkel to reject the comments, although government leaders were at pains to stress that they saw nothing in them but a restatement of France's long-held position.

Standing beside Chirac, Merkel said: "I must say I followed the discussion in Germany with a certain amount of surprise because of course what the French president said was completely consistent with the existing nuclear doctrine.

"It's important to make clear once more that this is about deterrence and there's nothing to criticise here at all," she said, adding the two had discussed Chirac's comments following an uproar in some German media.

Chirac's comments during a visit to a nuclear submarine base last week were his most explicit linkage of a threat of a nuclear response to a terrorist attack.

Experts believe the French arsenal comprises 300 warheads.

Critics have questioned the role of France's nuclear deterrent, which accounts for 10 per cent of the overall defence budget, in a post-Cold War world. Especially as France is struggling to haul its public deficit to below EU limits.

- REUTERS