Dominique de Villepin, France’s prime minister, on Thursday fended off accusations that his government had been unpatriotic in allowing SNCF, the state-owned railway company, to award a contract valued at up to €4bn ($5bn, £2.7bn) to a Canadian company rather than its traditional French supplier.

Mr de Villepin, who has long championed a policy of “economic patriotism” and the defence of national industrial interests, said that the French people must recognise that they lived in an open economy where purchasing decisions were made according to the best offer.