France Ready To Sign Test-Ban Treaty

Following a controversial series of nuclear tests, France has agreed to a treaty establishing a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific, the government said Wednesday.

France will sign the pact with the United States and Britain this spring, but an exact date hasn’t been determined, said government spokesman Alain Lamassoure.

In announcing the end of the six underground explosions in the French Polynesian atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, President Jacques Chirac said France will sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty now being negotiated in Geneva.

France has said the tests were needed to develop the data to simulate further tests in laboratories.