Emmanuel Macron has provoked a row by ordering that ceremonies in France marking the centenary of the end of the First World War next month must avoid commemorating it as a military triumph.

Sixty heads of state and government including US President Donald Trump are to attend ceremonies in Paris on Armistice Day, November 11.

The French president will make a speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

But Mr Macron’s office said an “overly military” ceremony would risk offending the French, who now view the First World War as a “mass slaughter” rather than a glorious victory.

An Elysée Palace source said: “The combatants were mainly civilians who had been armed.” About 40 million soldiers and civilians died in the four-year conflict.

Mr Macron decided to downplay the November 11 commemorations communicated to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who agreed.

However his decision is likely to disappoint President Trump, who was so delighted to attend the Bastille Day military parade in Paris on July 14 that he announced plans to introduce a similar event in the United States.

The French President was keen to avoid any homage to Marshal Pétain, a French hero of the First World War who is reviled for his later role as head of the Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War.