PARIS, Feb 2: French interrogators attempting to clarify the conditions under which Ahmad Shah Masood was assassinated on Sept 9, two days before the attack on the World Trade Center, have learned to their dismay that the plot was undertaken by a special French-speaking group.

Although only two of the men held French passports, say the interrogators, all of the participants in the plot were from French-speaking countries, notably France and Belgium, with three from the former French colonies of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The recent arrest in Paris of two young Frenchmen implicated in his assassination, and of seven other French-speaking suspects, has also proved of considerable embarrassment to Paris.

The interrogators insist, however, that the two kamikaze who assassinated Mr Masood, although they spoke fluent French, were in fact holders of Tunisian passports, and members of the Groupe Combattant Tunisien (GCT), who were based in London, and not Paris.

As for the underground network which provided them with their false papers, the interrogators point out, they were Algerian nationals belonging to the GSPC, an extremist wing of the GIA (Groupes Islamistes Armes), who provided them with Belgian passports.

In the end the two men presented themselves as reporters for Arabic News International, said they were Moroccan, and departed from London with Pakistani visas with which they able to reach Afghanistan by way of a stopover in Islamabad.