Chirac, attending an informal meeting of 14 Pacific nations here, reiterated there was no evidence nuclear testing carried out on the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia over a 30-year period until 1996 had posed a health risk.

"There has been no recorded incidence of any radiation levels significantly higher than those which occur naturally," Chirac said at a press conference.

Chirac said a 1996 study carried out by experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in conjunction with the World Health Organisation (WHO) had found no evidence of a health threat.

"This was an exhaustive study by the most senior international experts," Chirac said.

"It confirmed that there had no been no effects to health which could be medically diagnosed, and that there had been effects to the local eco-system."

The study's findings had not been contested by anyone "competent to do so", said Chirac, who provoked a storm of condemnation in 1995 when he ordered the resumption of nuclear testing in the Pacific shortly after his election.

After a swift six-test campaign in French Polynesia, the facilities were shut down completely a year later.

Chirac said as a precaution, France continued to monitor radiation levels in the region and carried out regular medical check-ups of personnel involved in the testing.

Chirac's insistence that there had been no short or long-term effects on the health of people living around the test grounds was questioned by New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on Monday.

"My understanding is that the level of cancers reported would be greater than one would expect," she told the New Zealand Press Association.

"When France brought its atmospheric testing to the South Pacific the standard response in New Zealand was to say, 'If it is so safe, why don't you do it at home?'," Clark said.

Veterans from Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls had protested against Chirac during the French President's stay in Tahiti, demanding France recognise the effects to health caused by the testing.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer struck a diplomatic note Tuesday over Chirac's comments.

Speaking in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on the first day of a two-day visit, Downer said he had "noted" Chirac's comments and suggested that people read the reports on the consequences of the tests to draw their own conclusions.

"I think I would say to anybody who wants to participate in this debate on the impact of French nuclear testing two things: we as the Australian government are delighted that the testing came to an end in 1996 and we are also pleased that the French government has no intention ever to resume testing in the Pacific," Downer told reporters.

Chirac earlier addressed representatives from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Guinea, Niue, Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, pledging support for the region's fragile economies and environment.

"Together we want to build a Pacific that is ecologically preserved, economically effective and socially equal, so this part of the world remains a haven of peace, a magical place where respect for timeless heritage and the quest for modernity meet," Chirac said.

The French president also reaffirmed support for an Australian-led intervention force which is currently attempting to restore law and order in the civil war-hit Solomon Islands.

"An international military presence is sometimes necessary to support the return to civil peace and to consolidate institutions," he said.

WAR.WIRE