PARIS, March 10: France has refused to allow its warplanes to attack some targets in Afghanistan assigned to them by US commanders during the last week, arguing that the missions endangered civilians, Le Monde daily said.

The report in Le Monde’s Sunday edition did not say how many missions the French had refused to carry out.

But it quoted responsible figures in the French military as saying French aircraft had completed around 20 missions in the Gardez region, attacking more than a dozen targets, in the last week.

France has deployed fighters from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and Mirage aircraft based in Kyrgyzstan to help the United States destroy a hardened core of al Qaeda in the Gardez area, 150 km south of Kabul.

Targets assigned to the French by the US command are checked by the French command in the region, which is under instructions from President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

There was no comment immediately available from either the president’s or prime minister’s office.—Reuters