Israel's ambassador to Paris was called to the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday, following the incident that Israeli warplanes dived menacingly on French UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, the French foreign ministry and defense ministry announced.

The ambassador, Daniel Shek, was "summoned this morning," spokesman of French Defense Ministry Jean-Francois Bureau said in a weekly press release on Thursday.

French Defense Minister Michle Alliot-Marie declared Wednesday night that the French troops had been within "two seconds" of firing on the Israeli military aircraft which dived toward their position in the southern Lebanon.

"A catastrophe was avoided thanks to the judiciousness of our troops," Alliot-Marie said.

French Defense Ministry said the incident occurred Oct. 31 but did not say where exactly.

"When Israeli aircraft recently 'dived' on French UNIFIL soldiers, it is a miracle that nothing serious happened, because there could have been a response on the part of French troops," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Wednesday.

The Israeli military said Thursday that it was unaware of any incident with French UN troops in Lebanon.

France currently leads the UNIFIL, and is due to hand over command to Italy on Feb. 4, 2007.

Source: Xinhua