The vehicles, of the AMX-10 type and sometimes described as "light tanks", are used for armed reconnaissance and attacks on enemy tanks.

The first vehicles will be sent to Ukraine "by the end of next week", Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Le Parisien newspaper's Sunday edition.

He declined to specify the number of vehicles in the first batch, saying he did not want to give Russia any "strategic information".

According to the French defence ministry, AMX-10s are highly mobile, "powerfully armed" and offer protection against light infantry fire.

Their combat weight is 20 tonnes, around a third of that of France's Leclerc battle tanks.

The French armed forces have begun to replace AMX-10s, first developed in the 1970s, with more modern vehicles called Jaguar.

President Emmanuel Macron promised in early January that France would send AMX-10s, after months of hesitation because of fears that increased weapons deliveries could further escalate the conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

Training of Ukrainian crews on the AMX-10 was now "nearly complete", Lecornu said.

Overall training of Ukrainian military was "intensifying", Lecornu also said, both in France and Poland, a fellow NATO member.

Starting in March, 600 Ukrainian troops would undergo training every month, he said.

Asked about possible fighter aircraft deliveries to Ukraine, an urgent request by President Volodymyr Zelensky, Lecornu said the question was "not taboo".

But he said such military aid posed complex "logistical and practical questions".