France's civil aviation authority, the DGAC, published on its Internet site on Monday a list of five airlines banned in its airspace for safety reasons.

The five banned airlines are Air Koryo from North Korea, Air Saint-Thomas from the United States, International Air Service from Liberia, Air Mozambique (LAM) along with affiliated carrier Transairways, and Phuket Airways of Thailand, which had not previously been named by the French Transport Ministry.

The action is fully backed by the European Commission, which istrying to implement an EU-wide list of suspect airlines that pools safety information from all the 25 member states.

"By being more transparent, we are improving the information available to passengers and it's a way for each state to strengthen control over its airlines," Maxime Coffin, director of security and control at the DGAC, told a press conference.

She said that the list was "not a universal response or a panacea" to security fears after five aviation disasters in the last month.

French Transport Minister Dominique Perben insisted Monday that"no diplomatic consideration" had been part of the decision to name only five airlines on France's list.

"The only criteria for this action is security," he said while making an official visit in the south of France.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2005)