Despite bringing home the RBS 6 Nations Championship, France were far from at their best and suffered an opening match defeat at the hands of unfancied Scotland on February 5.

After a flawless display during the Autumn Test matches Les Bleus failed to lived up to high expectations in February and March, putting in unconvincing performances even when winning.

Lapasset believes that tiredness in Les Blues camp could be to blame for the dip in form and wants to protect the national players from fatigue.

''When you look at the French team's performances during this tournament you realise that if we don't have a certain physical freshness, we will miss out on the World Cup,'' he said.

''We cannot dream about winning the World Cup just because we've won the Six Nations tournament.

''I watched a few Top 14 matches this week on television and against some of those teams, the French side would not have prevailed.

''We must gather with the Federation and the league to decide on three important matters: the players' availability, their status and the money side of things.''

France coach Bernard Laporte has long been an advocate of taking more central control of international players and he recently asked the FFR to let him have the squad for the entire seven weeks of the 2007 RBS 6 Nations in a bid to prepare ahead of the World Cup.

Lapasset urged a quick decision on the matter, saying: ''The most important thing is to make a decision fast because all the French clubs are waiting.

All this must be sorted out by June.''

But Lapasset also moved to dismiss reports that the cost of making the French squad available to Laporte for longer periods would be too high.

He added: ''The FFR's funds are full. We have no money problem. What we must do now is to redistribute the funds in order to be the most productive to win the World Cup which is our main ambition.''