France says no word from Turkey on military freeze

General Ilker Basbug, head of Turkish land forces, said on Wednesday Ankara was suspending military ties with Paris in protest at the French parliament's support for a bill making it a crime to deny that the killings were genocide.

"To my knowledge, we have not received official word from the Turkish authorities on this subject," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.

The French Defence Ministry said it had only heard of the move through the media and called for caution until Ankara told Paris exactly what was happening.

"I think we should not prejudge the evolution of these relations. It is not the sign of a crisis or of a major difficulty," Defence Ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau told reporters, adding the Turkish government had said nothing.

The French National Assembly approved the Armenian bill last month, triggering threats of a trade boycott by Turkey, which strongly rejects the claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War One.

The French bill is unlikely to make it into law because it is opposed by President Jacques Chirac, but many Turks see it as further proof that opponents of its bid to join the European Union are gaining the upper hand.

NATO said Turkey had assured it that the freeze would not affect alliance operations.

The two NATO allies work side by side in the Afghan capital Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is battling Taliban insurgents in a mission NATO says is vital to its credibility.

"Our initial understanding is that the Turkish decision will not affect NATO. It is focused on bilateral military activities, not NATO operations," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

He said that assessment was based on statements by the Turkish delegation at NATO and ISAF officials.

France's Bureau said there had been a "cooling" in military relations with Turkey in 2001 after the French parliament passed a law recognising the 1915 killings as genocide, but they had returned to normal since then.

"I think we should not consider that we are in a totally new situation. We have already known periods of cooling in bilateral relations. Until now, I do not see why that would change. They have never taken on a definitive character," he said.

"We have no practical consequences to date of the announcement made last night," he added.

French defence firms view NATO member Turkey, which has a fast-growing economy, as a lucrative market for their hardware. (Additional reporting by Mark John in Brussels). Reuters