Four Frenchmen detained in the US military camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for more than two years arrived back in France on Tuesday after being handed over to French authorities. The men were captured during the US led-war in Afghanistan on suspicion of fighting with the former Taleban regime.
The four, who arrived by French army aircraft at the Evreux military base in northern France, were taken away in a white coach flanked by police cars and outriders, a Reuters photographer said.
President Jacques Chirac said their release followed long discussions with US authorities and the men would now be handed over to French justice.
"Long and intensive discussions have resulted in the return to France of four nationals detained in Guantanamo," Chirac told reporters during a visit to Madagascar's capital Antananarivo.
France was continuing talks to obtain the release of two or three remaining French nationals in Guantanamo, he said, noting that the nationality of one of the them was not certain.
Chirac added that the four "will of course be handed over to (French) justice authorities, who as you know have opened a judicial investigation into their cases..."
Relations are frosty between Paris and Washington, which fell out over the US-led war in Iraq, remain divided in global trade talks and have clashed over whether Turkey should become a member of the European Union.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman told a briefing in Paris the men's release "would have no impact" on Franco-US ties, which she said also displayed areas of common interest.
"We continue to co-operate in a number of important areas," she said, pointing to work between the two in the fight against terror and to co-operation between Paris and Washington over the crisis in Haiti after an armed revolt there five months ago.