The contraceptives were purchased by the US foreign aid agency USAID under former president Joe Biden to be provided to women in some of the world's poorest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

But Donald Trump's administration, which has dismantled USAID since Trump succeeded Biden in January, confirmed last month it intends to destroy the contraceptives being stored in a warehouse in the Belgian city of Geel.

According to several media reports, the unexpired products were to be incinerated in France at the end of July by a company that specialises in destroying medical waste.

France's government has come under pressure to save the contraceptives, with women's rights groups calling the US decision "insane".

But the health ministry told AFP that "unfortunately there is no legal basis" for French or even European health authorities to intervene to recover the stockpile.

"Since contraceptives are not drugs of major therapeutic interest, and in this case we are not facing a supply shortage, we have no means to requisition the stocks," it added.

The ministry also said it had no information on where the contraceptives would be destroyed.

- Where are they? -

It remains unclear where the contraceptives currently are -- or even if they have already been destroyed.

French women's rights group Family Planning told AFP on Thursday they had been informed that the boxes had started being moved out of the Belgian warehouse 36 hours earlier.

"We do not know where these trucks are now -- or whether they have arrived in France," the group's head Sarah Durocher said, calling on incineration companies to "oppose this insane decision".

Exactly which company could be responsible for incinerating the products has also not been revealed.

French company Veolia, which had been rumoured as a contender, confirmed to AFP that it has a contract with the US firm Chemonics, USAID's logistics provider.

However the company emphasised that the contract only covers "expired products, which is not the case for the stockpile" in Belgium.

The products, which include IUDs, implants and birth control pills, are reportedly up to five years away from expiring.

Belgium's foreign ministry told AFP earlier this week that it "is exploring all possible avenues to prevent the destruction of these products, including temporary relocation solutions".

- 'Senseless' -

The US decision has provoked an outcry in France.

"Can France accept to become the executor of a senseless policy imposed by the US?" said an opinion piece by five NGOs in the French newspaper Le Monde on Friday.

Among the signatories was MSI Reproductive Choices, one of several organisations that have offered to purchase and repackage the contraceptives at no cost to the US government. All offers have been rejected.

Last week, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen pointed to the Trump administration's stated goal of reducing government waste, saying the contraceptives plan "is the epitome of waste, fraud and abuse".

Shaheen and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz have introduced a bill aiming to prevent further US aid being wasted.

A US State Department spokesperson told AFP earlier this week that the destruction of the products would cost $167,000 and "no HIV medications or condoms are being destroyed".

The spokesperson also pointed to a policy, reinstated by Trump earlier this year, which prohibits providing aid to non-governmental organisations that promote or perform abortions.

The NGO Doctors Without Borders, which has slammed the US plan as "unconscionable", has pointed to reports that there is another warehouse with USAID-purchased contraceptives in the United Arab Emirates.

A study published in The Lancet medical journal in June estimated that more than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people could die as a result of the USAID cuts.

Last month, the US also incinerated nearly 500 metric tons of high-nutrition biscuits that had been meant to keep malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan alive.

pan-mep-dl/rmb

Veolia