PARIS, FRANCE

National Forestry Office recently said it will take up to two centuries to restore France's forests, devastated by unusual Christmas weekend storms that killed 87 people. The winds blowing up to 125 mph uprooted or broke in half 270 million trees, which is the equivalent of 100 million cubic metres of wood.

``All kinds of trees were affected. Century-old oaks were knocked over and young pines were broken,'' Secretary General Jacques Descargues on French television. ``In areas where all the trees have fallen to the ground, we will have to recreate the entire forest, which means that in certain cases it will take 100 to 200 years. It's an enormous job,'' he said.

Worst hit was the eastern region of Lorraine, where some 25 million cubic metres of forest have been destroyed. The parkland around France's historic chateaux also took a severe blow and some 10,000 trees in the gardens of the 17th-century Versailles palace were destroyed, including a pair of 200-year-old beeches.