France coach Claude Bergeaud has defended his decision to include late arrival Frederic Weis in his squad for the European Championship.

The 28-year-old has joined Bergeaud's 12-man party as a replacement for the injured Vincent Masingue, despite turning down his country's call-up last April, claiming that he needed to rest.

However, Claude Maquis had been reinstated in the squad before Weis was given permission to travel to Serbia & Montenegro by his club side Bilbao.

		Tony Parker is not too pleased at Weis' inclusion in the French squad

This decision infuriated San Antonio Spurs and France point guard Tony Parker, who declared: "Frankly this is really annoying me to see that he (Weis) is included in the team when he did not want to take part in the preparation.

"Some guys worked hard for one month and one of them is now sidelined. This is a question of respect."

Coach Bergeaud insists his choice is for the good of the team.

"This is completely linked to the injury to Vincent Masingue, who was the key center of the team," Bergeaud told L'Equipe.

"After his pulling out we hesitated and were thinking about getting Marquis back or Alain Koffi or Crawford Palmer.

"But we thought we had to try to select the best possible team to go to Belgrade.

"Before the squad announcement in May, Frederic was not in the right physical state.

"But I asked him back then if we could count on him should we suffer a major injury to a player.

"He is just coming out from three weeks of training with his club and he said to me that he was ready."

Bergeaud does not want Weis to be seen as the team's saviour.

"He is not Zorro but an extra element brought to the team the same way Cyril Julian was last year during the qualification campaign," he added.

"Cyril was there to allow us to rotate the team. That's exactly what we will do with Weis who will not have the status of a first-team player."

France boosted their spirits at the weekend by winning the Limoges tournament after losing six consecutive preparation ties and will take on Italy in Milan on Tuesday in their last warm-up match.