The French government says it is providing more than six hundred million dollars in aid to help people clear and repair the damage left by severe storms at the end of last year.

The French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, said there would be a further one billion dollars of spending over the next ten years to help restore damaged French forests.

Special aid was also announced to help deal with the effects of the oil-spillage from the tanker, the Erika, which broke in two off Brittany in December.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service