AN MP today urged the Government to put more pressure on France to stop British war graves being dug up to make way for an airport.

Hyndburn's Greg Pope spoke out after it emerged new French Transport Minister Gilles de Robien said he was reviewing the decision made by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's administration to unveil plans for a third Paris airport.

A huge swathe of land had been earmarked for the project in the Somme region of Northern France.

Included in the development site were several war graves, which were the last resting places for dozens of members of the East Lancashire Regiment.

That regiment played a key part in the bloody Battle of the Somme of 1916, when many thousands of men from East Lancashire, including the famous Accrington Pals, were killed in the attempt to capture just a few miles of German-occupied France.

Under the original plans, the third airport would have been based around Chaulnes.

A massive groundswell of local opposition, plus condemnation from Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia, followed the announcement of the third airport.

Locally, the plans were condemned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which tends hundreds of graves across the Somme region, and also by local people, who feared it would set a dangerous precedent for the future.

The French Government is already trying to make the Somme more attractive for tourists.

Today Mr Pope said: "I welcome the decision for this review but also think the time is right for the Government here to apply extra pressure to make sure the new airport is not built at all.

"Charles De Gaulle airport has had millions spent on it and the second airport at Orly is hardly used.

"The Somme is too far away to be of any use as an airport for Paris and the idea of exhuming our dead soldiers, including ones from East Lancashire, is scandalous.

"These are the men who fought and died to free France from German occupation."

Mr Pope has now joined an all-party war graves association at Westminster. The group, without Mr Pope, is due to travel to the Somme this week.

They are also fighting to save British graves which are in the path of a new motorway being proposed in Belgium.

The graves of 1,248 Commonwealth soldiers as well as the remains of 7,200 Frenchmen are located on the site of the proposed airport in France.

In December, more than 91 per cent of the residents of the Somme voted against the project in a referendum.