PARIS: A group of French senators on Tuesday asked the country's constitutional council to block a new law that bans and punishes denial of the Armenian genocide.

The Senate last week approved the measure which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

Earlier, the French National Assembly voted to back a law that would make it illegal for anyone in France to deny that the 1915 killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War I amounted to genocide. France recognised mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman empire as genocide a decade ago, a bold step that pressure from Turkey has prevented in countries with a large Armenian diaspora such as the United States.

Turkey had already recalled its ambassador from France and threatened a broader raft of diplomatic and trade sanctions.

Turkey says those killed were the victims of war, and has downgraded relations with nations that disagreed.  — AFP