The French have opened fire on dodgy offshore jurisdictions with a warning shot on financial standards.

And French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn called for a boycott of tax havens if they fail to toe the line on financial regulation.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn listed -- for the first time in a new get-tough move -- a list of named jurisdictions where controls were lacking.

But -- in a list of shame which included the Caymans, Antigua and the Pacific Marshall Islands -- he did not single out Bermuda.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn said: "There's a long list of these places. Some of them are a bit exotic. We have to find a way of getting them back in line with international law.

"They cannot continue to believe their prosperity can be built on the open wounds of the rest of the world.'' Mr. Strauss-Kahn, however, targeted offshore banking as a through-route for dirty money from drugs, the arms trade and organised crime.

And Bermuda -- unlike other offshore centres -- spurned shadowy "brass plate banks'' in favour of insurance and reinsurance as major earners.

France -- like the UK -- is a member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union, both currently probing offshore centres with a view to cracking down on tax evasion.

Yesterday, Premier Jennifer Smith declined to comment on the French attack.

But a Government spokesman said: "They're quite clearly not talking about Bermuda here.

"If he's talking about banking without rules, it couldn't be us he means.'' But the spokesman added that the increasing focus on all offshore jurisdictions by major nations keen to claw back lost tax revenue was a cause for concern.

The spokesman said: "There has been a tremendous amount of publicity about offshore financial centres -- people clearly are examining them more than they have in the past.'' Mr. Strauss-Kahn added that not all offshore centres relying on "beneficial tax status'' to attract business were in the firing line -- even if there was room for improvement in some tax havens linked to European countries.

And he called for the world's leading economic powers to increase cooperation between their finance, justice and police agencies in a bid to beat renegade jurisdictions -- mostly not linked to the industrialised world.

France urges boycott of tax havens He added: "But there are also things that need fixing in developed countries.'' And he said the European Union was drawing up new laws to ban attracting foreign investment by giving tax exemptions.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn also admitted that French colonies -- like Martinique in the Caribbean -- also needed tightening up.

He said: "You have to start by cleaning up your own house first and we are acting on a number of situations on islands linked to French territories.

"What we need is progress at global level and France will do its part.''