"Pakistan has taken up the matter with France, which has been saying that the delivery of eight mirages and one submarine has been delayed for technical reasons," a senior government official told the English daily "News" on Friday confirming the French move.

Paris has suspended the delivery of contracted military hardware to Pakistan early this month which Pakistani officials believe is simply like "stabbing in the back and twisting the arms", the report said.

Incidentally, Pakistani foreign minister Sartaj Aziz, after his return from Paris where he met his French counterpart on July 3, had categorically said that France had not imposed any arms embargo on Pakistan and hoped that the mirages and the submarine would be delivered as per agreement.

But thereport said france had suspended or frozen the supply of military items and the only thing which was not hit by this freeze was the spares required by Pakistan armed forces excluding explosive materials.

Pakistan foreign office has taken up the matter with the French government though Paris is causing delay and watching the situation on the line of control, the newspaper said.

The report claimed that officially Pakistan had been told that the delivery had been delayed because of technical reasons but in fact the action was a reflection of France's concern over the escalation in the situation along the LOC.

The French action followed after the Group of Eight (G-8) nations took strong exception to the infiltration in Kargil during their meeting last month.The Pakistani authorities have conceded that the French decision was a major setback to its armed forces.

"The major setback is non-commissioning of the first of the three Agosta-class subs which was to be commissioned on July 8," a senior official wasquoted as saying.

Apart from that, the delivery of eight mirages out of a contracted 40 old mirages worth $120 million was also suspended, the report said.

Pakistan had already received eight mirages earlier as per the contract signed during the tenure of former air chief Abbas Khattak and the second lot of delivery was scheduled early this month, it said.

The French move, coupled with a clear warning to Pakistani authorities delivered through commander-in-chief of US Central Command General Anthony Zinni in the last week of June, forced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to rush to Washington on July 4 to agree to take "concrete steps" for the restoration of the sanctity of line of control.