71.   China has been one of the key holdouts, agreeing only last month to drop its demand to be allowed to conduct non-military nuclear blasts.

72.   Deeply angered that France went ahead with a second underground nuclear blast, the South Pacific Forum suspended all relations with France on Monday.

73.   Despite international opposition, France on Monday detonated its second underground nuclear blast in less than a month at sites in the South Pacific.

74.   Defying international protests, France set off a nuclear blast Tuesday beneath a remote South Pacific atoll, beginning a series of up to eight nuclear tests.

75.   France plans to stage as many as eight nuclear blasts by the end of May before signing a test ban treaty.

76.   France set off a nuclear blast Tuesday beneath a remote South Pacific atoll, beginning a series of up to eight nuclear tests.

77.   France has attracted widespread international criticism for its plan to conduct seven or eight underground nuclear blasts through to next May.

78.   France said Wednesday that after a series of nuclear blasts in the South Pacific it will end all tests and close its test site in French Polynesia.

79.   France set off a sixth underground nuclear blast in the South Pacific, the last in a series of atomic tests that generated protests worldwide.

80.   France has come under intense international pressure since announcing it would set off seven or eight nuclear blasts beneath the island beginning in September.