France's foreign ministry has denounced Rwandan claims of complicity in the country's 1994 genocide.

A Rwandan report carried "unacceptable accusations against political and military officials", a spokesman said.

On Tuesday an independent Rwandan commission implicated 33 French officials for their failure to prevent the killings.

The report said France was aware of preparations for genocide and helped train the ethnic Hutu militia.

The report also accused French troops of direct involvement in the killings.

Former French Foreign Minister Alan Juppe told Agence France-Presse news agency the accusations were an "unacceptable" attempt to rewrite history.

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Burundi's government and rebel FNL sign ceasefire ... his blog earlier this year, he wrote of "an insidious attempt to rewrite history. It aims to turn France from an involved party to an accomplice to the genocide. It is an unacceptable falsification".

Some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu militias in just 100 days in 1994.

Among those named in the report were late former President Francois Mitterrand and then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur.

Mr Juppe and his chief aide at the time, Dominique de Villepin, were also named. Both men went on to become prime minister of France.

Testimonies

Earlier this year France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner denied French responsibility in connection with the genocide, but said political errors had been made.

The report says France backed Rwanda's Hutu government with political, military, diplomatic and logistical support.

"French forces directly assassinated Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis... French forces committed several rapes on Tutsi survivors," said a statement from the justice ministry cited by AFP.

"Considering the seriousness of the alleged crimes, the Rwandan government has urged the relevant authorities to bring the accused French politicians and military officials to justice," the statement said.

It further alleged that French forces did nothing to challenge checkpoints used by Hutu forces in the genocide.

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, says the commission spent nearly two years investigating France's alleged role.

It heard testimonies from genocide survivors, researchers, writers and reporters.

The 500-page document was presented to the Rwanda's government last November, but was not made public until now.

The two countries have had a frosty relationship since 2006 when a French judge implicated Rwandan President Paul Kagame in the downing in 1994 of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane - an event widely seen as triggering the killings.

President Kagame has always denied the charge.

He says Mr Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed by Hutu extremists who then blamed the incident on Tutsi rebels to provide the pretext for the genocide.

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(BBC)

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