PARIS, Oct 1 (Reuters) - France is in "exploratory" talks with Rwanda on restoring diplomatic relations with the African state after Kigali severed ties with Paris last year, a French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.

Rwanda cut diplomatic relations in November after a French judge called for Rwandan President Paul Kagame to stand trial over the death of his predecessor in April 1994 -- an event that unleashed the country's genocide, in which some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview in August he believed he would visit Rwanda "very soon", raising hopes of a thaw in relations between the two states but such a trip has yet to take place.

"As the minister has indicated, we wish to move forward quickly towards restoring our diplomatic relations, which Rwanda broke off in November 2006," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani told a regular online news conference.

"In that context, exploratory contacts are ongoing," Andreani added.

Former rebel leader Kagame, and other critics, accuse Paris of covering up its role in training troops who carried out the massacres and propping up the Hutu leaders who deployed them.

France denies that and says its forces helped protect people during a U.N.-sanctioned mission in Rwanda at the time.