France coach Claude Bergeaud is backing the youthful exuberance of NBA stars Ronny Turiaf and Johan Petro to boost his side's chances at the FIBA World Championship in Japan.

Both men were called up on Monday along with ASVEL's Stephen Brun, Napoli's Michel Morandais and Le Mans' Yannick Bokolo to complete Bergeaud's 17-men squad which will start the pre-championship preparation next week.

"Ronny and Johan are two players with a great potential who also symbolise the future of the national team," said Bergeaud.

Turiaf has completed an astonishing recovery from heart surgery and is now playing with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He impressed with the France 'A' team last week and made himself an automatic choice for Bergeaud.   

"Turiaf has been strong this season as a center and he also successfully completed the transition between university basketball and the professional world," added Bergeaud.

"He has shown that we could definitely count on him."

Petro, a Seattle SuperSonics center, has also made a good impression on the French boss who selected him ahead of Ian Mahinmi.

"He (Ian Mahinmi) did good things with the 'A' team but Turiaf and Petro are largely above him in terms of level," said Bergeaud.

"Ian needs to work harder before applying to the national team."

Petro and Turiaf's inclusion in the France squad increases the number of NBA players to five after Mickael Pietrus (Golden State Warriors), Boris Diaw (Phoenix Suns) and San Antonio Spurs' star Tony Parker.

France, who won bronze at the Euro 2005, will be in Group A along with Argentina, Serbia & Montenegro, Nigeria, Lebanon and Venezuela.

They start their preparation in Divonne-les-Bains on Monday and will play a friendly against Switzerland on July 17 before travelling to Strasbourg to take on Senegal, Lithuania and China from July 21 to 23.

Bergeaud is then expected to reduce his squad to 14 by the end of July and down to 13 before the start of a warm-up tournament in China.

He will announce his final 12-man squad a few days before the start of the FIBA World Championship which begins on August 19 and runs until September 3.