The group also asked US companies not to boycott French products, urging them to keep politics and business separate.

"MEDEF calls on French companies to prepare themselves to fully participate in the provision of goods and services that will be essential in order to meet the needs of a population in distress and to rebuild Iraq," the group's executive committee said in a statement read at a press conference.

Last month, the French finance ministry convened a working group with MEDEF representatives to discuss strategies for French companies bidding for reconstruction contracts in postwar Iraq.

When asked if France's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq would negatively affect the chances of its firms, MEDEF president Ernest-Antoine Seilliere said he had "never heard talk of such a freezing-out".

With respect to an eventual boycott of French products by US companies, MEDEF said that US companies unhappy about France's political stance should know they are "free to criticize but that they should keep the products and services of our companies out of the argument."

"We'd like to tell American companies: 'Don't attack our perfumes, our yogurts and our airplanes'," Seilliere said.

"We urge businesses not to have a diplomatic complex, and to react in a way that will not destroy ties already established on the commercial level," he added.

France's unwavering anti-war stance has sparked a wave of anti-French protests in the United States, with some pouring French wine down street gutters and others renaming foods like "freedom fries" and "freedom toast".

SPACE.WIRE