Defence Ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire said President Nicolas Sarkozy had decided France would go beyond its original pledge to provide roughly half the soldiers for the force, which Paris hopes will include at least 3,000 troops.

"The president has authorised the defence minister to make new proposals in the framework of the discussions underway in Brussels in order to fill what has been identified by everyone in the past weeks as the residual gap," Teisseire said.

"This residual gap is, as you know, very largely in the area of transport on the theatre," he added.

French Defence Minister Herve Morin complained in a newspaper interview last month of other European countries' reluctance to provide troops for the force, which will be headed by an Irish general.

The newspaper Le Figaro reported on Thursday that France had decided to unblock the situation by filling the gap itself, providing roughly 10 helicopters and possibly an extra transport plane, plus a further 500 men for logistical support.

That would bring France's contribution to the force to more than 2,000 men out of a total of 3,500, the paper said.

Teisseire, however, said France had not decided to fill the gap alone and it hoped other countries would join the effort.

"The president wants us to continue our effort by helping to unblock the situation by offering to go beyond what France has done until now. But we still fervently hope ... that it will be a collective effort," he said.

Member states are due to hold a meeting in Brussels tomorrow to deal with the shortfall.

"There is a decision at the level of the president (to make an extra contribution). There is no decision on numbers. There is a force generation meeting tomorrow, then we'll have to see what is missing," a French diplomat in Brussels said.