Agence France Trésor (AFT), the entity that manages France's debt, will buy back €6bn ($5.3bn) worth of French government bonds as part of its on-going debt management programme that includes using the swaps market to reduce the duration of its debt.

The agency said that the buy-backs, which are part of a strategy to reduce the average maturity of France's debt, will enable it to ensure &quotadequate liquidity&quot in new benchmarks such as the BTAN, due July 2007, and an OAT, due April 2012, as well as its OAT ei, or bond linked to eurozone inflation, due in July 2012.