The official newspaper of the ruling Ba'ath party, Al-Thawra, said Paris knew of the attacks several weeks in advance, but did nothing to stop them.

It also denounced French proposals for a new regime of weapons inspections.

"France is not totally innocent of the aggression and its latest recommendations are no less than part of the aggression. It is the French way out of the Anglo-American problem," read a recent Al-Thawra front-page editorial.

France appeared to object to the strikes over Iraq's alleged obstruction of UN weapons inspectors.

The French foreign ministry said chief weapons inspector Richard Butler's report to the UN, which prompted the air strikes, lacked clarity.

Editorial warning

The Al-Thawra paper condemned French suggestions of new inspections as no less aggressive than the air strikes themselves.

Al-Thawra ended its editorial by reminding France of "what it would lose if it lost Iraq".

France enjoyed close relations with Baghdad before helping drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War.

Baghdad still has enormous debts to France and French oil companies are known to want to reinvest in Iraq once sanctions are lifted.

Baghdad has repeatedly said it will not allow the UN weapons inspection team, Unscom, back in the country, and has demanded a total lifting of the sanctions imposed after the Gulf war in 1991.