FACTBOX: Key facts about strained Rwanda-France ties

(Reuters) - Rwanda held fire on Thursday after a French appeals court freed two Rwandans indicted by Kigali and an international court over the country's 1994 genocide, saying it wanted more information on the decision.

Here are some key details about Kigali-Paris ties.

* Although Rwanda was a Belgian colony until independence in 1962, France maintained close links with the Francophone country from 1975 to 1994, providing financial and military support to the government of Juvenal Habyarimana, Rwanda's Hutu president killed in a 1994 attack on his plane.

* From October 1990 to December 1993, the French army led "Operation Noroit" which many Rwandans saw as backing Habyarimana's government against the Tutsi-led invasion of Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Front rebels.

* The attack on Habyarimana's plane was widely believed to have sparked the 100 days of slaughter, during which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

* Two days after the plane was shot down in April 1994 with ground-to-air missiles, France launched "Operation Amaryllis" to evacuate 1,500 residents, mostly Westerners trapped in Kigali. Rwandan survivors have criticized the French for turning away Rwandans who wanted to escape the killings.

* In 1998, Rwanda dismissed the findings of a French parliamentary inquiry blaming the United Nations for failing to avert the genocide, calling it a "whitewash". In 2006, a Rwandan government-appointed commission launched a probe into France's role in the genocide. Paris denies any complicity.

* On Nov 21, French anti-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere filed a document with the Paris prosecutor's office, that said there was evidence President Paul Kagame and members of his military staff had devised the operation to destroy Habyarimana's plane. In it, he called for Kagame to be brought before a U.N. court. Bruguiere issued international arrest warrants for nine Kagame associates the following day.

* Kagame denounced the move as "bullying and arrogant".

* In November 2006, Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with France, angry at the French judge's call for Kagame to face trial.

* Last April Rwanda filed a case at the World Court accusing France of violating international law by seeking the prosecutions of Kagame and his associates.

* In July, Rwanda formally asked France to hand over French passport holder Isaac Kamali, who is on Rwanda's wanted list of genocide suspects and is detained in France.

* Roman Catholic priest Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and another man, Laurent Bucyibaruta who were detained in France last month and Rwanda sought their extradition. The French court ruled on Wednesday the indictments violated the presumption of innocence.