France asked the United States in 2014 not to bomb a Lafarge cement plant in northern Syria, an area which was at the time controlled by Daesh (ISIS), emails that are part of an investigation into the company's Syria operations show.

LaFarge admitted last year it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating.

The email is among a cache of correspondence sent by Gellet, Lafarge's then security chief Jean-Claude Veillard and other French officials.

France's Foreign Ministry declined to comment when asked about the 2014 request to U.S. authorities and whether the government was aware Lafarge was making payments to armed groups.

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