Chirac's comments "are aimed at no country in particular," foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters when asked about a possible link to Iran, which Western nations suspect of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Mattei stressed that Chirac made no reference to any specific country in his speech on French nuclear policy on Thursday.

"It is a doctrine that is modulated according to the strategic environment" and which remains "a doctrine of deterrence", he added.

In comments during a visit to a nuclear base in France's northwestern region of Brittany, Chirac for the first time raised the threat of a nuclear strike on any state that launches "terrorist" attacks against France.

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."

France's armed forces chief of staff, General Henri Bentegeat, said on Friday that Iran was "a major concern for us today" on the grounds that it "is displaying extremely belligerent intentions".

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.