France confirmed on Wednesday it has posted armed guards on some Air France flights to the United States because of the threat of attacks.
Dominique Bussereau, state secretary on the Transport Ministry, said France felt obliged to tighten its security measures after the United States informed it of intelligence information showing signs of potential hijacking threats.
Washington ordered foreign airlines on Monday to place armed marshals on selected flights to or from the United States.
Paris cancelled six Paris-to-Los Angeles Air France flights on Christmas Eve after warnings from Washington but had until now declined to confirm it was posting armed guards on flights.
Bussereau told France Inter radio that Air France had posted unarmed guards on certain flights since the September 11, 2001 attacks by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
"Armed guards are not the rule, but now we have an exception reserved for certain very specific situations," he said after confirming that police from the elite GIGN and RAID units were flying on sensitive flights.
"France is now at the peak of what it can do in terms of airline security," Bussereau added.
"This will continue as long as we, along with our American friends, have the same assessment of a real threat to flights to the United States or coming from the United States to Europe."
French and U.S. delegates met in Washington on Monday to discuss anti-terrorist measures, the French Foreign Ministry said.