French senators have passed a bill outlawing the denial of Armenian genocide in 1915, with a seething Turkey slamming the move and warning of consequences while Armenia hailed a day "written in gold."

The French Senate on Monday approved, by 127 votes to 86, the measure which threatens with jail anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged "reason and dialogue" in the row with Turkey on the Armenian genocide, in a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seen by Agence France Presse Friday.

"I hope we can make reason prevail and maintain our dialogue, as befits allied and friendly countries," Sarkozy wrote after Erdogan's government reacted strongly to a bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide under Ottoman Turkish rule, which the French Senate will debate on Monday.

Turkey may step up action against France if the French Senate votes this month to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, a Turkish diplomatic source said Thursday.

"There may be a downgrading of the Turkish diplomatic representation in Paris. It is probable," if the upper house of parliament approves the bill criminalizing denial of the disputed 1915 genocide, the source told Agence France Presse.

France's upper house of parliament will vote this month on a bill to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide, a government official told Agence France Presse, despite a furious diplomatic spat with Turkey.

The French lower house approved the law last month, threatening anyone who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide with jail, drawing a threat of sanctions from Turkey.

Turkey's deputy prime minister Sunday accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of breaking a promise that the parliament would not pass a bill criminalizing the denial of genocide in Armenia.

French lawmakers voted Thursday to jail and fine anyone in France who denies that the 1915 killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide, prompting Turkey to suspend political and military cooperation with Paris.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused France of committing "genocide" in Algeria after French lawmakers voted a bill criminalizing the denial of Armenian genocide.

"France massacred an estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population starting from 1945. This is genocide," Erdogan told a news conference after the French move on the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman-era forces.

The Armenian genocide is a "fact of history" and a proposed French law making it illegal to deny this has nothing to do with upcoming elections, France's minister for Europe said on Wednesday.

"Today all peoples must be lucid and courageous in looking at their history. It has been nearly 100 years since the Armenian genocide took place, those responsible are dead, it is simply a matter of recognizing a fact of history," European Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti told Radio Classique.

The Turkish government will impose a raft of diplomatic and trade sanctions against Paris if French lawmakers adopt an Armenian genocide bill this week, a government source said on Tuesday.

"Turkey will not remain silent. That will obviously have consequences," the source told Agence France Presse.

The percentage of male children born in Armenia has risen significantly due to an increase in female feticide, the United Nations Population Fund said on Monday.

More than 7,000 Armenian women have had selective abortions over the past five years, according to a new study carried out by the U.N. Population Fund with the Armenian health ministry and the Institute of Perinatology.

President Michel Suleiman returned to Lebanon on Saturday from a three-day visit to Armenia where he met his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkissian and other officials.

He stressed the importance of the agreements between the two countries, praising the “major role Lebanese of Armenian origin play in all fields in Lebanon.”