A suicide bomber was killed and two guards were slightly wounded on Saturday in an attack outside the French embassy in Mauritania's capital, a French embassy source said, Reuters reported.
It was not immediately known who was behind the attack, which took place outside the embassy walls, the source said.
It was made three days after Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who toppled Mauritania's first democratically elected leader in a military coup last year, was sworn in as president of the Saharan country after winning an election last month.
Defeated opponents have denounced the poll as a fraud, but France said it was ready to re-engage with the Islamic state, which has pledged to make the fight against al Qaeda a policy priority.