PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac announced last night France has now "definitively" ended its nuclear weapons tests after the sixth explosion in the current series in the South Pacific at the weekend. "France now has a reliable and modern defence system," he said.
France is to give up its testing after 35 years and more than 200 explosions, in Algeria and the South Pacific. It will move instead to simulated testing by laser for future weapons development.
In a short statement on television, Mr Chirac said he had accomplished his "first duty, to give France the capacity for its defence and security in the years to come". He was aware his decision to resume nuclear testing, announced on June 13th last after a three year moratorium imposed by the former president, Francois Mitterrand, had caused anxiety. "I was not unmoved by this movement of public opinion," he said.
What was originally announced as a series of eight tests, to continue until May, was cut to six and finished four months early.
France would now play an active role for world disarmament, Mr Chirac said, adding that he would announce initiatives in the coming months. France repeated last week that it intended to sign the Complete Test Ban Treaty by the end of the year.
He was clearly relieved to be able to end the tests, which have overshadowed the first eight months of his presidency. But he insisted that the world was still a dangerous place, and that the aim of weapons of dissuasion was to serve peace.
The decision to resume tests sparked a wave of protests around the world, as well as public clashes between the environmental organisation, Greenpeace, and the French military in the South Pacific.
More seriously, French policy rocked its European Union partners, creating bitter division in the EU. An attempt by Paris to justify its decision by offering a nuclear umbrella to its European partners was strongly rebuffed.
Washington, where President Chirac will make an official visit tomorrow, welcomed the announcement, as did Greenpeace. The organisation said China and Russia were now the main obstacles to nuclear disarmament in the world.
Future French weapons will be tested in a nuclear research centre near Bordeaux. The simulation programme, to be ready by 2002, will cost 10 billion francs (£1.25 billion).