General Marcel Bigeard, one of France's most decorated soldiers, who died last month, reportedly asked to rejoin his fallen comrades.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request

It was in French Indochina that Gen Bigeard began to make his name as a commander in a Paratroop regiment.

BBC: French Gen Marcel Bigeard dies aged 94

He said he did not raise the matter of Gen Bigeard's ashes.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request

General Bigeard denied the allegations, calling them "a pack of lies".

BBC: News

No final decision was then made until September, when Mr Le Drian announced that Gen Bigeard would finally be buried in the Indochina memorial in Frejus.

BBC: News

But as Herve Morin this week becomes the first French defence minister to visit Vietnam since Dien Bien Phu, the country's foreign and defence ministries have rejected Gen Bigeard's last request.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request

Gen Bigeard was a commanding officer during the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, where French troops were surrounded and defeated by the forces of the Vietnamese Communists, the Viet Minh.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request

Gen Bigeard, who was also a commanding officer during the Battle of Algiers, began his military career as an enlisted man, and retired from the army as State Secretary for Defence in 1976.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request

Before he died in France last month, aged 94, Gen Bigeard had asked for his ashes to be taken to the battlefield, where they would "rejoin his comrades who fell in battle", an aide said.

BBC: Vietnam rejects French officer's ashes request