The Turkish parliament has warned that Turkey's relations with France will suffer if the French Senate adopts a bill formally recognising as genocide the killing of Armenians living in the Ottoman empire between 1915 and 1917.

A statement did not say what measures would be taken, but the Turkish foreign minister, Ismail Cem, said trade and political ties would be affected.

He said the bill, passed in the lower house of the French parliament last Friday, had been based on false documents and wrong information.

Armenians say the Ottoman Turks killed more than a million of their compatriots during the First World War.

France has the largest Armenian community in western Europe.