A SENIOR French minister has pulled out of talks with her UK counterpart as an international row over lucrative submarines contract escalates.

France has been left fuming after the UK, US and Australia agreed a new pact, which includes the development of nuclear-powered submarines – a deal which tore up an agreement for Paris to supply Sydney with diesel-electric boats.

French defence minister Florence Parly and Tory defence chief Ben Wallace had been due to hold a bilateral meeting and address an event held by the Franco-British Council.

A spokesman for the Franco-British Council said: "The defence conference planned for September 23 has been postponed to a later date.

"The Franco-British Council regularly brings together the defence community in France and the UK and we look forward to holding our rearranged conference when a new date has been agreed."

A defence source told the PA news agency that "the meeting is postponed, not cancelled" and highlighted the strength of the UK military relationship with "trusted allies" France, including operations in Mali and complex weapons development.

"We work closely with the French in many areas," the source said, adding: "They are an important ally."

Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said "all international relationships go through ups and downs".

"The relationship with France, as I say, all bilateral relationships go through periods of tension, that is the inevitability of relationships, just as it is," he told the BBC.

"On a personal level, I have absolutely no doubt that, ultimately, our relationship with France will endure, but this is about making sure that we have a really strong defence relationship with two very, very important defence partners."

He added: "The bottom line is, ultimately, the UK and France have many shared interests, I'm sure that will come to the fore."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged French president Emmanuel Macron not to "worry" about the Aukus military alliance Britain formed with the US and Australia.

The Prime Minister insisted Anglo-French relations were "ineradicable" on Sunday after France suggested the UK was a lapdog to Joe Biden's White House during a verbal attack.

In a rare step among allies, Macron ordered the recall of the French ambassadors to Washington and Canberra after Australia pulled out of its £30 billion submarine agreement with the French.

No such step followed for London, and France's Europe minister Clement Beaune suggested it was because the UK was the "junior partner" which had accepted its "vassalisation" by the US.

But Johnson insisted Britain and France have a "very friendly relationship", which he described as being of "huge importance".

"Our love of France is ineradicable," he told reporters as he travelled to the UN General Assembly in New York.

"Aukus is not in any way meant to be zero-sum, it's not meant to be exclusionary. It's not something that anybody needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends."

New Foreign Secretary Liz Truss touched down in New York alongside Johnson as they both prepare to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington on Tuesday.

She will also attend the UN summit, where she will come into contact with the French, though the extent of any planned conversations was unclear.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the deal as a "stab in the back" and constituted "unacceptable behaviour between allies and partners".

In an interview with France 2 television, Le Drian accused Australia and the US of "duplicity, disdain and lies" and said the recalling of France's ambassadors "signifies the force of the crisis today".

He said allies "don't treat each other with such brutality, such unpredictability, a major partner like France ... So there really is a crisis".