He also said France's doctrine of nuclear deterrence has been extended to protect the country's "strategic supplies", taken to mean oil.

"Leaders of any state that uses terrorist means against us, as well as any that may be envisaging -- in one way or another -- using weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would be exposing themselves to a firm and appropriate response on our behalf," he said.

"That response could be conventional, it could also be of another nature," Chirac said in a clear reference to nuclear weapons during a visit to a French nuclear base in the northwestern region of Brittany.

The president said he was extending the definition of "vital interests" protected by France's nuclear umbrella to include allies and "strategic supplies".

The French press understood "strategic supplies" to include oil. Le Monde newspaper said that was aimed "probably also at those countries from which France imports part of its energy needs".

"If, theoretically, such interests were threatened by regional powers -- Iran, North Korea? -- France would react," the daily said.

The French president, however, did not single out any country in his speech.

He did indicate, though, that the previous Cold War stance of threatening massive and widespread destruction against enemies had been changed to a doctrine permitting a graduated and limited nuclear response.

"Faced with a regional power, our choice is not between doing nothing and annihilating it," he said.

France has configured its nuclear arsenal to be able to respond "flexibly and reactively" to any threat, by reducing the number of nuclear heads on certain missiles on board its submarines, he said.

Such a move would enable it to conduct strikes on specific targets and limit the zone of destruction.

"It would be up to the president of the republic to evaluate the potential magnitude and consequences of unacceptable threats or blackmail against our interests," he said.

Such a situation could lead a French head of state to declare those "vital interests," Chirac said.

He said "the fight against terrorism is obviously one of our priorities," but he added that "it is not because a new threat appears that it causes all the others to disappear.

"Our world is marked by the emergence of affirmations of power that rely on the possession of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."

In an apparent reference to Iran, Chirac condemned "the temptation by certain countries to obtain nuclear capabilities in contravention of treaties."

Iran's government is pursuing a nuclear development programme, stoking fears among major powers that it will be used to make nuclear weapons.

France's opposition parties were split in their reaction to Chirac's statements.

The Socialist Party, through one-time prime minister Laurent Fabius, said there was nothing shocking about the position put forward.

But Helene Luc, a senator with the smaller Communist Party and member of a defence committee, said: "This extension of the concept of nuclear dissuasion takes us back years to the Cold War and can only deepen tensions with countries that aspire to have such weapons."

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France's Nuclear Punch
Ile Longue Military Base, France (AFP) Jan 19 - If President Jacques Chirac ever carried out his implicit threat to strike countries sponsoring terrorist attacks against France, the results would be devastating to say the least.

France's stockpile of atomic weapons, built up during the Cold War independently of the other nuclear-armed states, is composed of strategic missiles designed with a view to deterrence. That means that they are so destructive that no rational enemy would choose to provoke their use.

As far as is known, France does not possess battlefield or tactical nuclear weapons, which could be used on a more limited scale.

The total number of strategic warheads that France possesses is classified as a military secret, but it is widely believed to be between 200 and 300.

In the event of a conflict, they would be fired from nuclear submarines or from aircraft, or both. The country no longer has nuclear missiles based in silos on land.

At any one time the French navy has one of its four strategic nuclear submarines, equipped with operational nuclear missiles, at sea. They operate from the Ile Longue base in Brittanny where Chirac made his speech on Thursday.

Each nuclear-armed submarine carries 16 M-45 missiles, which are due to be replaced from 2010 by the new M-51 projectile, with a range of 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles).

The nuclear deterrent is also based on Super Etendard aircraft equipped with air-to-ground missiles. They can operate either from the nuclear-powered carrier Charles de Gaulle or from a hardened underground base in Taverny, near Paris.

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