A French lawyer has asked a Parisian court to issue an arrest warrant for the former Uruguayan military leader, Gregorio Alvarez, in connection with the disappearance of a French national in the 1970s.

The lawyer, Sophie Thonon, is representing the relatives of Roger Julien, who was kidnapped in Argentina in 1976, together with his wife and two children, allegedly at the request of the Uruguayan government.

Mr Julien, who was born in Uruguay but held a French passport, had fled to Argentina in 1973 at the start of Mr Alvarez's regime.