French foreign minister says to visit Rwanda soon

PARIS, Aug 1 (Reuters) French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said today he believed he would visit Rwanda ''very soon'', a move that would signal a thaw in relations after Kigali broke off diplomatic ties with Paris last year.

Rwanda cut diplomatic relations with Paris in November after a French judge called for Rwandan President Paul Kagame to stand trial over the death of his predecessor in April 1994 -- an event that unleashed the country's genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered. ''I think I will go there. Not straight away, tomorrow, but very soon,'' Kouchner told RTL radio in an interview. ''I hope that we will be able to restore trusting relations,'' he added.

Former rebel leader Kagame, and other critics, accuse Paris of covering up its role in training troops who carried out the massacres and propping up the Hutu leaders who deployed them.

France denies that and says its forces helped protect people during a UN-sanctioned mission in Rwanda at the time.

REUTERS AE KN1418