Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama Yade, a member of the centre-right government, said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that the timing of Gaddafi's visit was particularly bad as he was arriving on World Human Rights Day.

"France is not just a trade balance," she told the daily Le Parisien, adding that France should not only sign business deals with Gaddafi but also demand "guarantees" from him on human rights in his country during his five-day visit.

"Colonel Gaddafi must understand that our country is not a doormat on which a leader, terrorist or not, can come and wipe the blood of his crimes off his feet. France should not receive this kiss of death," she said.

"It would in any case be indecent if this visit were to boil down to the signing of contracts or ... a blank cheque," she added.

Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam said in a newspaper interview last week that Libya would buy more than 3 billion euros worth of Airbus planes plus a nuclear power station and was looking to acquire military hardware too.

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

"I do not share the automatic indignation of those who rule out all dialogue with Libya. But I cannot say either that I am happy about this visit because it coincides with World Human Rights Day," Yade said.

"There are people who have disappeared in his country. We don't know what has happened to them. The press is not free. Detainees are tortured. The death penalty has been scrapped for Libyans but it remains in place for sub-Saharan Africans," she added.

Yade's comments, repeated in radio interviews on Monday morning, are a rare outburst from a cabinet member who has kept a relatively low profile so far.

She was not part of President Nicolas Sarkozy's large delegation when he visited China last month, which prompted criticism from the opposition. Sarkozy said he raised the issue of human rights himself with his Chinese counterpart.

Sarkozy made a point of inviting Gaddafi after Libya in July released six foreign medics accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Paris, which helped broker their release, says the trip is part of Libya's "redemption".

The West long accused Gaddafi of backing terrorism, but ties with Tripoli have warmed since it scrapped its weapons of mass destruction programme in 2003 and agreed compensation for families of victims of bombings of U.S. and French airliners.

Yade also voiced rare criticism of her political patron Sarkozy and his decision not to take her to China with him.

"Why hide the secretary of state for human rights? Nicolas Sarkozy must not turn his back on the diplomacy of values," she said.