The move has been sparked by the French National Assembly's decision to adopt a bill officially recognising the killing of Armenians during the First World War as genocide.

But the verdict of genocide has been repeatedly rejected by Turkey, which disputes the number of dead and says they were not deliberately massacred but died as a consequence of war.

'Racist and irresponsible'

The Foreign Minister, Ismail Çem, called the decision racist and irresponsible and said it legitimised attacks against Turkish targets.

Officials said Turkey will now be reviewing the full range of its economic and political ties with France.

They have drafted a plan under which Turkey would refuse to enter into defence contracts with France and boycott French-made goods.

The BBC Paris correspondent says the 'genocide' vote arose from a parliamentary initiative, and did not have the formal backing of the government.

The upper house of the French parliament has yet to approve the resolution.

Stephen Jessel reports from Paris

According to some historians, up to one-and-a-quarter million Armenians were massacred after 1915 as they were forced out of Turkey towards Syria by a government that feared they sympathised with Russia, at that time at war with Turkey.

Chris Morris reports from Ankara on the Turkish reaction

A BBC correspondent says although Franco-Turkish relations are likely to suffer, Turkey still needs powerful Western friends and it cannot afford to lose the support of France, one of its main allies in the fight for EU membership.

Other countries - Russia, Canada, and Turkey's regional rival Greece - have also deemed the slaughter a genocide, but France has now become the first major western European nation to do so.

The French vote comes as the EU is trying to encourage Turkey to resume its dialogue with Europe, broken off after an EU decision in December, to exclude Ankara from membership of the Union.

Sensitive issue

The BBC correspondent in Ankara says there is no more sensitive subject for Turkey than the allegation that genocide was committed against Armenians by the Ottoman Turks more than 80 years ago.