France 'at war' with al-Qaeda: Nicolas Sarkozy

France is at war with al-Qaeda's North African branch and will intensify military support for governments in the region combating the Islamist fighters, prime minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday.

He was speaking in a radio interview a day after president Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped in Niger and held by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had been killed following a failed French rescue mission.

"We are at war with al-Qaeda and that's why we have been supporting Mauritanian forces fighting al-Qaeda for months," Fillon told Europe 1 radio.

Asked what Sarkozy meant when he said the killing of retired engineer Michel Germaneau would not go unpunished, the prime minister said: "It means the fight against terrorism will continue and will be reinforced."

He declined to give details for security reasons. However, he stressed the government's policy remained to negotiate with hostage takers whenever possible to save the lives of French citizens.

Asked whether Paris would retaliate militarily, he said, "France does not practice revenge."

France has said it decided to launch a raid into Mali with Mauritanian forces last Thursday only after failing to establish any negotiating channel with the kidnappers and because it feared for the hostage's life because of an al-Qaeda ultimatum.

Fillon said France was on maximum security alert and several attempted attacks were thwarted on French soil and in neighbouring countries each year.

However, foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said he saw no increased threat of terrorist action in France in the wake of the killing of Germaneau, who was kidnapped in Niger in April.

"I don't think we have the slightest bit of evidence of an increased danger," Kouchner told RTL radio in an interview.

The foreign minister was speaking from Mali after being sent to the Sahel region on Monday by president Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss increased security measures for French nationals.

Kouchner said he had not urged French nationals to leave the Sahel but had asked that they take increased safety precautions.

The minister said he had been told that Germaneau was killed a long way from the area where the Franco-Mauritanian raid took place, but it was not clear when.

"Was he dead before this operation? Did he die afterwards? I don't know," he said.