PARIS, June 9 (AFP) - Maybe it's that mix of hot Latin blood and cool Cartesian intellect, or perhaps is just a collective guilty conscience.   

Whatever the cause, nearly 40 percent of French men told a recent survey that they would, science permitting, like to become pregnant.  

The poll, conducted by Ipsos and published in the current issue of Children Magazine (Enfants Magazine), showed that 38 percent of the more than 500 fathers of children up to seven interviewed by phone said they would like, or would have liked, to be the one to carry their offspring to term.  

A slightly higher percentage of women respondents liked the idea of their spouses taking on the nine-month job.   

The magazine did not compare the overlap - whether women whose mates expressed deep maternal yearnings would welcome the prospect.  

The survey carried other signs that parenting is not what it used to be in the country that spawned one of the all-time feminist classics, Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex".  

Eighty-six percent of the fathers queried said they were ready "to take a paternity leave of several months to live their fatherhood more intensely," provided it caused "minimal financial impact."  

And 71 percent said they were prepared to "take a year-long sabbatical" or "request to work part time."