The accident took place just before 6.00pm (6am Singapore time), said Ms Stephanie Lepage, a spokesman for Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

The plane was carrying 490 passengers and 18 crew, she added.

The plane came to rest with its nose in the grass between two runways, television images showed.

Canadian media reported that the plane had a problem with its undercarriage.

'Flight AF 346...at the start of its landing, ground to a halt with its front undercarriage (ending up) outside the runway,' Air France said in a statement.

'Nobody was injured and the passengers...were able to reach the terminal to transfer later to other flights,' it said, adding that the time of the accident was 5.44pm.

Passengers aboard the flight said the plane appeared to have trouble braking.

'The brakes suddenly came on...We remained calm inside the plane...it was no problem. We could see the front tire had blown out and was resting on the grass,' one passenger told reporters.

'The brakes probably seized up. We waited one hour aboard the plane, but it went by quickly,' said another passenger.

'All's that left is for us to get the luggage left on the plane,' he added.

Normal air traffic resumed later on the other runways of the airport.

Ms Lepage said the Transportation Safety Board of Canada would investigate the mishap, and Air France also said it would conduct its own probe.

On August 2, 2005, an Air France Airbus A340 arriving from Paris overshot the runway in Toronto during a storm, plunged into a ditch and caught fire.

The 297 passengers and 12 crew members of that flight were evacuated in record time, but ten passengers and two crew members were hurt.

The weather in Montreal on Tuesday evening was fair. -- AFP