The diplomats, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said French ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte, met with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on Wednesday to urge that the meeting not be held.

Levitte argued that the so-called "principals meeting" between Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and possibly national security advisor Condoleezza Rice would send the "wrong message," they said.

His intervention came after France learned that Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, had requested the meeting to discuss a single item: punishing France for its opposition to the war in Iraq, the diplomats said.

Levitte told Armitage that the meeting would undermine attempts to overcome the bitter feud over Iraq between Washington and Paris, particularly if it came so soon after French President Jacques Chirac's Tuesday phone call to Bush, according to the diplomats.

"The phone call had a lot to with it," one US diplomat said of Levitte's conversation with Armitage.

A European diplomat said Levitte had stressed that Chirac's call to Bush had been a "gesture" at reconciliation and suggested that Washington reciprocate.

The debate over how to approach France has split Washington along traditional lines of rivalry with hawks at the Pentagon favoring a harsh line against the French and doves at the State Department arguing for restraint.

Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and influential civilian Pentagon advisor Richard Perle have urged limiting France's military role in NATO and its participation in Iraqi reconstruction projects.

The State Department, meanwhile, wants to move beyond the split over Iraq and focus more on areas of future cooperation with France, including in Iraq, and is vehemently opposed to any steps against Paris at NATO.

The diplomats said Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz had called Thursday's meeting to consider whether to bypass the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body, and in favor of the alliance's Defense Planning Committee from which France withdrew in 1966.

A senior US official said confusion at the Pentagon over Bush's thinking on France after his talk with Chirac may also have contributed to the cancellation of the meeting.

"DoD wasn't ready," the official said, referring to the Department of Defense.

"State was ready to defend its position to stay engaged with the French, but defense thought it wasn't prepared," the official said. "They want to know more about where Bush stands after talking with Chirac."

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