BBC Northern Ireland's London correspondent Stephen Walker recently travelled to the Somme to examine the background to this controversy.

As she met us the tears started to flow.

"When they build the airport, they will destroy this place for ever", she cried as my cameraman and I prepared to leave.

The old woman had watched us from her garden as we filmed in the tiny cemetery at Fouquescourt.

As you arrive in the village, some 35 kilometres east of Amiens in Picardy, the demands of the 130-strong inhabitants are obvious.

Banners are draped over hedges, stickers adorn parked cars and posters are everywhere.

Many allies

Ever since plans for the airport development were announced, the villagers have been engaged in a battle for hearts and minds.

They know they are not short of allies.

Eighty four years ago, the fields and farm buildings that make up Fouquescourt were captured by the Canadian Infantry Brigade.

It was August 1918 and after the Armistice the British Cemetery to the north of the village became home to 350 war graves.

Maintained by the Commonweath War Graves Commission with its distinctive white headstones and simple cross, it is a place of pilgrimage for relatives and veterans.

Among the graves lie a dozen from Irish regiments - young men from all the provinces of Ireland - Royal Munster and Dublin Fusiliers, Royal Irish Lancers and the famous Royal Inniskillings.

To many in Ireland, the Somme is sacred ground - land where a generation of young Irishmen was wiped out.

The cemetery at Fouquescourt is one of six that will have to be moved if the third Paris Airport goes ahead. The French government say a new complex is needed because the two existing Paris airports cannot cope with demand.

The new site is at Chaulnes about 130 kilometres north of the capital.

Although the plans are not finalised - the move has prompted the governments of Canada, Australia and the UK to voice opposition.

Personal interest

Northern Irish politicans have also joined the criticism and Secretary of State John Reid has had talks with local parties, the British Embassy in Paris and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The former Armed Forces minister has a personal interest in the story.

His grandfather saw service in the World War I and rose to the rank of captain. Later his Scots Guardsman father took part in the D- Day landings.

John Reid: Grandfather fought in World War I

Speaking to BBC News Online, Dr Reid said: "I have long been interested in the First World War battlefields and I know how much the Somme area means to people in Northern Ireland.

"I want to do everything to protect the final resting place of those who died. I believe our interests are being heard."

Residents close to the site have already held an unofficial referendum on the proposals - 8,000 people from villages across the region took part with 91% voting against the plans.

People in Rouvroy en Santerre, a small town to the west of Fouquescourt, are typical of those opposed to the scheme.

Insult

Francoise Maille is the town's deputy mayor. I met her in the town hall as she and other campaigners talked tactics.

She told me: "To move the graves is an insult to the memory of the men who came here and fought and died for us."

She hopes the Transport Ministry will have a change of heart.

Internationally the French government know the image of war graves being moved arouses great emotion and they are involved in discussions with British, German and Australian diplomats.

The news that the plans are being reviewed has heartened the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which will hold talks with Dr Reid at Northern Ireland's Somme commemoration centre near Newtowards on Tuesday.

Speaking to BBC News Online, Commission spokesman Peter Francis said: "We believe that progress has been made and the news from French Transport ministry that a review is under way is welcome."

'Least worst option'

When you examine the terrain around Fouquescourt you can see why the flat landscape would appeal to planners considering an airport.

To some, the plans may be the "least worst option" by keeping disruption to a minimum.

To the villagers it is the equivalent of state sponsored vandalism.

It is a classic example of how the decisions of the past are in conflict with the desires of the present.

History may have shaped this land but decades after the guns fell silent, old alliances are being rekindled to fight for it all over again.