PARIS, May 28: France is telling India and Pakistan that it would like to be able to mediate in their dispute over Kashmir, with President Jacques Chirac revealing to his official guest George W Bush that he had spent considerable time on the telephone last weekend with Gen Musharraf attempting to promote his good offices as a mediator in the dispute that both Washington and Paris would like to see settled as soon as possible.

President Chirac is known to be playing on the new relationship that has been instilled between Paris and Islamabad since the May 8 terrorist attack on a busload of French naval employees that left eleven of them dead and more than twenty wounded.

Elysee Palace sources say that Gen Musharraf had been made aware that President Chirac wants to continue the warm relations between the two countries that resulted in the signing of a number of controversial defence agreements — such as the 1994 accord that is responsible for the construction in Karachi of the three Agosta-90b submarines on which were working the French nationals killed on May 8.

But Mr Musharraf has also been told, say the sources, that there is a growing feeling in the French political world, notably on the Left, that the relationship between the two countries should perhaps be reviewed and contracts like that on which the slain French employees were working, should be renegotiated if not terminated altogether.

This was the desire expressed recently by leading French parliamentarian Bernard Cazeneuve, who also happens to be the Mayor of Cherbourg, the port city where the slain French employees were based, as well as a high-level member of the French National Assembly’s defence commission. The French Confederation generale du Travail (CGT) trade union also recently expressed its desire that France terminate its defence accords with Pakistan and not pursue construction of the two remaining Agosta-90B submarines.

As a result of the conversations between Gen Musharraf and President Chirac on one hand, and those between Mr Chirac and George W Bush, the Quai d’Orsay reported last night that Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin had himself been on the telephone on Monday (May 27) with his opposite number, Mr Sattar, and that in the words of Quai d’Orsay spokesman Francois Rivadeau, the two men had “reviewed the situation in the region, notably following the two Pakistani missile tests” and had also discussed “the concrete gestures which could possibly help reduce tensions (with India).”

Mr de Villepin, according to the spokesman, “expressed his support for a continuing and reinforced engagement by Pakistan against terrorism.” Also, noted the spokesman, Mr de Villepin was planning to discuss the situation in the Kashmir with a number of other European foreign ministers throughout the day yesterday.

Meanwhile, the French government has asked its nationals in Pakistan to “take their dispositions” to return to France, with the Quai d’Orsay saying it will leave in place only those employees who are considered necessary to the operation of its embassy, consulates and other official representations.

A day earlier, asked whether France would be emulating Great Britain and recalling all of its personnel, a governmental spokesman had indicated that the Quai d’Orsay was presently studying the question and would come back soon with an answer.

At the same press conference, Mr Rivadeau had let it be known that as for the “war clouds” that were “approaching” with regard to India and Pakistan, “it’s a situation that we’ve been following with the greatest attention.”

He also noted that French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin had telephoned the foreign affairs ministers of India and Pakistan in New Delhi and Islamabad with regard to the “storm clouds” gathering overhead.

As for the Kashmir, Mr Rivadeau noted that the French government felt that “more than ever it was necessary that a (firm) engagement in the fight against terrorism must prevail.”