PARIS, May 8: French President Jacques Chirac has termed Wednesday morning’s bombing of a bus in Karachi an “ignoble act.”

He has asked the newly-appointed Defence Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, the country’s first woman minister of defence who was named on Tuesday, to immediately travel to Pakistan to investigate the situation. She was due to leave for Pakistan later in the day.

Presidential sources said that according to their intelligence, the dead and injured French citizens were all employed by the Direction de la Construction Navale, the French naval shipbuilding authority.

Mr Chirac — one of whose priorities upon being reelected on Sunday to a second term as president is to reinforce security in France - has also ordered that French authorities reinforce the security surrounding the French community in Pakistan.

A member of his entourage - who refused to be identified - noted that according to information received by the Presidency, the bombing would have been the work of Al Qaeda.

President Chirac, according to sources, telephoned President Pervez Musharraf to express his regrets over the attack, which he described as “cowardly and odious” and to communicate his concern over the security of the French employees working in Pakistan. He is reported to have told his Pakistani counterpart to see to it that those guilty were found as soon as possible and brought to justice.

Chirac told Musharraf that Pakistan was playing a key role in the fight against terrorists and that France would be happy to assist Pakistani police in their investigation into the blast in anyway it could.

The sources said President Musharraf offered deep condolences over this tragic incident and promised to carry out a vigorous and full-scale investigation to trace the culprits.

In return, Chirac said France acknowledged the difficulties facing Pakistan after it joined the international coalition against terrorism in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.