France laid to rest on Thursday ten soldiers killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, while the minister of defence rejected allegations that the military had been too slow to react to the attack.

President Nicholas Sarkozy paid tribute to the soldiers' courage and dedication to service at the funeral at Les Invalides in Paris.

"Soldiers, you have fulfilled your mission to the full, and you have given your lives for it. You are an example for France and for the army," he said.

Sarkozy posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Legion D'honneur to the fallen soldiers, whose coffins were draped with the national flag. The majority of the French cabinet was present at the ceremony.

Meanwhile, French Defence Minister Herve Morin earlier on Thursday rejected accusations that the French military's response to the Taliban attack, which took place on Tuesday, was too slow.

Morin told RTL radio that the exact circumstances of the attack must be clarified before criticisms can be made.

The French newspaper Le Monde wrote on Thursday that support troops were sent to the combat zone too late, and that the patrol in which ten soldiers were killed had been under fire for four hours without help.

But Morin told RTL that a rapid reaction force was despatched "15 to 20 minutes after the firefight began" although it did take about an hour for them to reach the battle site.

In addition a second unit and helicopters were despatched, but for these operations the troops first had to secure the zone.

"These things cannot be taken care of in one motion as if with a magic wand," he argued.

Morin said that the ambush consisted of up to 100 insurgents and had been pursued with "extreme force."

Contrary to the official version, Le Monde maintained that the backup troops did not reach the attack area shortly after the commencement of the attack, that injured troops were left lying for hours after the ambush, and that friendly fire was to blame for some of the deaths.

However, Morin denied accusations of friendly fire, saying "we knew that we could not deploy F-15 jets with bombs because it was not possible to differentiate between French troops and Taliban fighters.

"If bombs had have been dropped, then there would have been serious collateral damage," he said.

French Chief of Staff General Elrick Irastorza said that the French military must learn its lessons from the ambush.

The political fallout from the attack has yet to clear, however. The French government accepted on Thursday a request by the opposition Socialist Party for a debate on the country's involvement in Afghanistan.

The government will deliver a statement on the Afghan deployment on September 22, followed by a debate in the national assembly, a government spokesman said on Thursday.