Paris - Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze Tuesday labelled Russia a threat to Europe and called for Moscow to be punished for its invasion of Georgia.

"The Georgia conflict is a test," the former Soviet foreign minister told the French daily Le Parisien. "If the Europeans let Russia away with this, what guarantee can they then give Poland or the Baltic states if the scenario repeats itself?"

Paris - The death toll in the wake of tropical storm Fay in Haiti was feared to be much higher than official accounts so far, the internet edition of the French paper Le Nouvelliste said Monday.

On Sunday, Haitian officials had put the number of deaths at seven.

But since then some 30 persons were missing after the lorry they were being transported in toppled over in a raging river, the paper reported, citing officials.

Civil defence official Marie Alta Jean Baptiste said that the Red Cross was treating 12 wounded, but those survivors spoke of some 30 further passengers having been on board the lorry. So far those passengers had not been located.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded that Russian troops withdraw "without delay" from Georgia, adding that "this point is not negotiable in my eyes."

In an article to appear in Le Figaro newspaper Monday, Sarkozy said he would convene a special European Union summit if Russia failed to remove its military troops that entered Georgia on and after August 7.

"If this clause of the ceasefire accord is not applied rapidly and totally, I would summon an extraordinary European Council to decide what consequences to draw," the article said.

Paris - France's consumer price index stabilized in July with inflation at 3.6 per cent, down 0.2 per cent from the previous month and unchanged year on year, the country's statistics bureau INSEE said Tuesday in Paris.

France's economic growth appeared however to be losing steam with industrial output dropping 0.4 per cent in June to stand 1.4 per cent lower than the same month in
2007.

The automobile industry appeared particularly stymied, with manufacturing in the sector shrinking by 5.8 per cent for the second quarter.

Paris  - President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently chairs the European Union, was expected to fly to Moscow and then to Tbilisi Tuesday to mediate the crisis over Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Elysee Palace said.

Sarkozy spoke by telephone with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev twice Monday. He also spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian President Silvio Berlusconi about his goal of reaching a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia.

Moscow, Aug 12 : With Russian Army moving into Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, in an apparent attempt to broaden the conflict over South Ossetia, French President Nicolas Sarkozy will arrive here to undertake a peace plan.

Sarkozy will meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Kremlin to discuss a French peace plan that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed on Monday as Russian troops moved further into Georgia and casualties mounted outside the breakaway regions that sparked the war.