France may posthumously clear the names of hundreds of soldiers shot for refusing to obey orders to fight during World War One, the minister in charge of veterans' affairs has told a newspaper.

"I am considering a way of rehabilitating, on a case by case basis, those shot as an example during the First World War," Jean-Marie Bockel told Monday's edition of Le Figaro.

"My officials are considering the overall dossier minutely because not all the cases are the same," he said. "We want to find those who were shot as an example, for example for refusing to fight or for mutiny, such as the mutineers of 1917."