French officials held talks in Tunisia with a senior member of Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's regime, sources told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday.
Libyan Foreign Minister Mussa Kussa spent Monday and Tuesday in Tunisia, where he stayed at a hotel on the island of Djerba.
A well-placed source said he held talks Tuesday at his hotel with four French officials, but could give no details about the nature of the talks.
Kussa's arrival in Tunisia via the Ras Ajdir border point Monday had been reported by the country's official TAP agency, which said he was there on a "private visit".
Kussa has been foreign minister since March 2009.
A former head of the security services and exterior intelligence, he is not one of the members of Moamer Gaddafi's inner circle targeted by a United Nations travel ban.
French Prime Minister Alain Juppe told parliament Wednesday the "first defections" in Gaddafi's entourage had begun.
It was not clear whether there was any relation between his remark and the meeting in Tunisia.