France weighs need for a final N-test

France is to decide in the next few days whether to call a halt to its underground nuclear tests, after exploding late on Saturday night its sixth device since resuming tests last year.

The latest explosion was the most powerful since the first test on 5 September and took place at Fangataufa atoll in French Polynesia at 21.30 GMT on Saturday. It was the equivalent of 120,000 tonnes of high explosive and was set off a few days before President Jacques Chirac was due to leave for a visit to the United States.

Although criticism of the test programme has been less vocal in the US than in the countries of the Pacific Rim and northern Europe, there have been suggestions that Mr Chirac might use his visit there to announce that the sixth test was the last France will undertake before signing a test ban treaty.

When he announced in June that France would renounce the moratorium observed by all the declared nuclear powers except China, it was suggested that eight tests would take place at France's two test sites in Polynesia at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls. Mr Chirac later said that the series might be limited to six. But he told diplomats earlier this month that the series would be completed by the end of February, apparently leaving open the possibility of a seventh test.

Officials said the latest test was designed to assess "the safety and reliability" of France's nuclear arsenal. Reports suggested it was a further test on the TN-75 warhead for submarine-launched missiles. A decision on future testing will depend on whether Saturday's explosion has yielded sufficient data to make a seventh test unnecessary, but analysis will take some days.

The sixth test, like its predecessors, was condemned by Japan, Australia, New Zealand and other states in the region. French officials claim that denunciation of French testing has not been matched by action at the economic level in the form of boycotts or the shunning of French companies.

They do admit that the resumption of tests was poorly handled in terms of public opinion, with the Foreign Ministry emphasising it was a prelude to a total ban on testing while the Defence Ministry was more concerned to promote the idea that the tests would ensure that France would remain a major nuclear power.