PARIS - French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Thursday France will write the principle of "food sovereignty" into law as he unveiled further measures to quell farmer unrest amid escalating tensions at home and in Europe.

Attal made the announcement at a news conference, adding more work to address farmer concerns was needed at EU level, namely regarding free trade agreements.

Attal said that it was "out of the question" that France would accept to agree to the Mercosur trade deal with Latin American countries.

He also said France will step up safety checks on food imports, notably to make sure that imported foods do not have traces of pesticides that are banned in France or the European Union and said that France would stop going above and beyond EU regulation on pesticides.

"It makes no sense to ban pesticides in France before such decisions are taken on an EU level, we will end this practice he said.

Attal announced a first batch of measures to appease farmers last week - including a dropping a plan to phase out subsidies for agricultural diesel - but farmers' unions have rejected these as insufficient. REUTERS