French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation will propose its Rafale fighter aircraft to Canada 1101131.

"Canada is potentially the first country that could challenge the F-35," Trappier said.

"We are ready to explain what a Rafale offer could be, its operational capabilities and an industrial cooperation," he added in an interview due to be published in Les Echos' Wednesday edition.

Canadian officials said last month that the government would restart the process of searching for a new fighter for Canada's air force after soaring costs spurred a rethink of plans to buy Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35.

They said it was still possible that Ottawa would eventually decide to buy the F-35, dismissing reports Canada had decided to walk away from the jet.

Dassault describes its Rafale as being an "omnirole" fighter, a tag that it says denotes the type's ability to perform multiple mission types simultaneously. This differs from the widely adopted multi-role description used by its rivals largely as a result of the aircraft's ability to provide its pilot with data fused from onboard sensors, it says.

India last year selected Dassault Aviation as its preferred bidder in a USD 10 billion (7.6 billion euro) contract to equip its air force with new fighter jets.

If the contract is finalised, the first 18 aircraft will be supplied directly by Dassault and the remainder will be produced under licence by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, a state-run Indian firm, in Bangalore.

The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan and Libya.