France are set to make a bid to host the 2012 European football championships, the national football federation president Claude Simonet said on Friday.

Simonet said he wanted to make clear the federation's desire to host Euro 2012 without in any way detracting from France's bid for the 2012 Olympics Games.

"As a precaution, we are telling the European football body UEFA of our interest," said Simonet at the federation headquarters. "If France were not chosen to host the Olympics, it would be good to still have the chance to host a major sporting event that year.".

"We are certainly not competing with the Olympic bid."

France will have to provide UEFA with a completed bld dossier by July 21 next year, though Simonet added should Paris be awarded the Olympics a couple of weeks earlier, the French football federation would probably end its interest in hosting Euro 2012.

The Euro 2012 hosts will be chosen in December 2006. Other countries to have shown Interest include Italy, Greece, as well as joint proposals from Croatia-Hungary and Ukraine-Poland.