Protesters Storm Bastille Day Celebrations : South Pacific: Activists march outside embassies on France’s national holiday, decrying decision to resume nuclear tests.

SYDNEY, Australia — Anti-nu clear demonstrators around the South Pacific threw a symbolic wet blanket over France’s Bastille Day celebrations Friday, protesting outside French embassies and forcing minor bans on sea and air traffic.

Thousands of people opposed to the planned resumption of French nuclear testing in the region held rallies and marches to try to spoil official Bastille Day receptions in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.

But in Paris, President Jacques Chirac brushed aside the chorus of international protest and reaffirmed his commitment to going ahead with the testing, telling a Bastille Day news conference that his decision was irrevocable.

Chirac said civilian and military experts had advised him when he took office in May that the tests were necessary to ensure the safety of the country’s nuclear arsenal, complete the checking of a new warhead for France’s nuclear submarines and develop computer simulation techniques.

He repeated that France would sign and respect a complete test ban treaty next year and told French citizens the nuclear deterrent gave their “big, modern country . . . political weight in the world.”

In Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, about 10,000 people shouting, “Stop French testing,” marched to a police-ringed French consulate. Clogging four city blocks at a time, the marchers carried banners reading, “Truffles not testing” and “Boycott products of France.”

Expatriate Polynesians burned a French flag at a protest south of Sydney, and 1,000 people rallied outside a convention center in Canberra as the French ambassador went ahead with an official reception. An Australian Parliament member presented a 100,000-name petition to the French ambassador calling for testing to stop.

In New Zealand, about 2,000 protesters dumped manure outside the French ambassador’s Wellington residence and heckled the ambassador and luncheon guests by chanting, “Liberty, equality, fraternity, hypocrisy.”

About 2,500 protesters marched on the French Embassy in Fiji’s capital, Suva, and presented a 50,000-signature petition to the ambassador.

But the strongest protests were in Australia, where unions hurt French businesses with a range of Bastille Day boycotts.

Air France canceled flights between Sydney and Paris, and between Sydney and New Caledonia due to a 24-hour ban on French planes by transport workers.