"The deterrent remains a necessity as long as certain countries continue to develop their nuclear arsenal or want access to the bomb," a senior Elysee palace official said.

"A missile shield should complement, but only usefully complement the deterrent," the source added, three days before Sarkozy is to host Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a summit.

"Not only are we not against (the missile shield plan) but we are ready to contribute financially or in kind," the source said.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates called during a visit to Brussels for NATO allies to invest in the missile-shield.

Gates has put the price tag to link NATO members into a common anti-missile network at between 85 million and 100 million euros (120 million and 140 million dollars).

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed optimism the missile shield would be endorsed by NATO leaders at a summit in Lisbon on November 19-20, saying it was well on the way to a "consensus."

French Defence Minister Herve Morin, however, on Thursday expressed his "reservations" about the plan, saying Paris wanted more details about how much the system would cost and how it would work.

Speaking in Paris on Friday, Rasmussen stressed that "anti-missile defence does not replace the deterrent, it completes it."

He put the cost at "less than 200 million euros over 10 years shared between 28 nations. That seems bearable to me."

"More than 30 nations possess or are trying to acquire ballistic missiles. We cannot ignore this problem and must have the means to prevent a missile being launched at our cities," he said.

France, a nuclear-armed power, was also at odds with Germany, which backs the missile shield plan but is pushing for nuclear disarmament.

"Some people in Germany, not all, feel that an effective missile shield could progressively replace deterrence," the Elysee source said.

"France's position is very clear: the nuclear deterrent is part of the Atlantic alliance's fundamental framework, there's no question of changing that," the source said.

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