He spoke after a keynote speech on Europe on Thursday by President Emmanuel Macron, in which he mentioned the need for such a force "to be able to deploy rapidly up to 5,000 military personnel to hostile environments".

"It's a key issue and one on which I hope we can succeed by next year," Lecornu told the France 2 television channel.

There are "lots of missions not in NATO's scope for which France often leads operations on its own", he said.

He mentioned the example of France's evacuation of hundreds of people -- French nationals as well as foreigners -- from Sudan last year after war broke out between rival generals.

"We are saying today: 'Let's do it in Europe', and for us, that is pragmatism," Lecornu added.

"We should be able to rapidly set up (this force) to ensure the safety of European nationals."