PARIS (Reuters) - Insurers face a bill of around 500 million euros ($682 million) following severe weekend storms in parts of western France, the head of French reinsurer Scor told BFM radio on yesterday.

Scor chief executive Denis Kessler said insurers would cover around half the total damage estimated at around 1 billion euros, with much of the remainder covered by the government's central insurance fund.

Insurers would have to cover damage caused by wind, while the government's central insurance fund would cover water damage, Kessler said, referring to a state-backed natural disaster compensation scheme.

Heavy rain combined with strong winds and high tides destroyed several Atlantic coastal sea walls along the regions of Vendee and Charente Maritime and killed at least 52 people.

Fitch Ratings agency estimated losses from storm "Xynthia" would be "material, but manageable within the earnings of French insurers".

Fitch added it was the worst storm to hit France since storms Lothar and Martin in 1999, which caused insured losses of 6.9 billion euros.

"The catastrophe modelling agency RMS has suggested that on preliminary observations Xynthia was not as severe as windstorm Lothar and that it was similar in intensity to windstorm Klaus, which occurred in January 2009 and caused insured losses of 1.7 billion euros in France," Fitch said.