PARIS - Thousands of French diplomats from Rome to Riyadh staged an unprecedented strike this week over budget cuts they say make a mockery of President Jacques Chirac's bid to boost French influence abroad.

Embassy and consular services were reduced to a minimum in the protest last Monday over cutbacks which unions say have hit diplomats' allowances abroad and even led to paper shortages in some missions and Foreign Ministry offices.

"The French approach is that you can solve world problems through diplomacy. If that is so, then give us the resources," said Yvan Sergeff, of the public sector trade union USMAE.

"(We) do not understand how President Jacques Chirac and the government proclaim grand ambitions for France internationally even as the human and financial means of this ministry are constantly shrinking," USMAE and five other unions said.

USMAE said 126 of France's 154 embassies - a diplomatic network second in spread only to that of the United States - were affected. The Foreign Ministry said most missions had been affected.

Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said half of France's diplomats abroad went on strike, and a third of those in Paris.

"We are confronted today with extremely difficult budget conditions," Villepin said on Europe 1 radio. "Of course this has repercussions for our diplomatic service."

Villepin was quick to add that he did not support the strike: "No minister is pleased to have a strike ... The president and the prime minister understand our situation. There is a will to maintain our diplomatic capacity."

In Washington, the French embassy was closed to non-urgent business. "We are only open for emergencies. Call back tomorrow," said an employee who answered the telephone.

In Rome, almost all staff were on strike at France's embassy in the Renaissance Palazzo Farnese, a receptionist said by telephone, adding the embassy was closed to the public.

Calls to the French embassy in London were answered by a recorded message saying it would operate at a reduced service. Up to 40 per cent of ministry personnel went on strike in Dublin, although embassy services were little affected.

"There is nobody here today, only local employees," said an official at the embassy in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. A spokeswoman said the mission was open only for a "minimum service".

Over 75 per cent of foreign ministry staff were on strike at Algiers, where the ex-colonial power has one of its largest embassies. The figure was even higher in Tunis.

Shortage of pencils

Other missions appeared less badly affected. A French diplomat in Tehran said some staff there were on strike but that the embassy was offering all services. It was largely business as usual in Germany, Poland and Finland, local officials said.

Unions say the 22,000-strong diplomatic service has suffered under-funding for years and faces worse from the 2004 Budget, in which Chirac made defence and police spending the priorities.

The unions question Villepin's extensive travel budget and ask whether Chirac's wife Bernadette needed to take a 50-head delegation to Rome for the beatification of Mother Teresa.

Far from the wide perception of expatriate life being cushy, many junior diplomats and locally hired staff are unable to fund housing and school fees out of their grants, unions say.

"This level of impoverishment cannot be sustained," said Danielle Milanini of the union grouping, Force Ouvriere.

"Building security codes or maintenance contracts are not respected. There are missions where people are having to buy their own paper and pencils."

Some 200 strikers demonstrated outside the Senate upper house of parliament. Few expect any major changes to the ministry's 2004 budget before parliament, given that ruling conservatives dominate both houses.

"We know it's a surprise to see us in the streets," said Thierry Robert, a diplomat at the Foreign Ministry's Quai d'Orsay headquarters by the River Seine. "But things are going from bad to worse. Some days even the lifts here don't work."

(Agencies via Xinhua)