21.   With the new tests in the South Pacific, Chirac wants to ensure the effectiveness of a new warhead to replace an aging arsenal.

22.   France said it needed the tests to verify a new nuclear warhead and develop computer technology to simulate blasts and thus maintain the French atomic arsenal.

23.   At first the new warhead - the TN-N - was to have been developed from underground testing, but will now be entirely dependent on simulation.