CASABLANCA, Morocco, June 1 (Reuters) - World Champions France returned to Casablanca for the annual King Hassan Cup on Thursday hoping that the competition might once again provide a good omen for bigger challenges ahead.

In 1998 France saw off host nation Morocco as well as England and Belgium to lift the trophy and then went on to World Cup glory a few weeks later.

On this occasion, the French will play the Moroccans, Japan and Jamaica in their final warm-up matches before the Euro 2000 finals in Belgium and the Netherlands later this month.

'Of course we want to finish first. A team feeds on victories and to win is a morale boost,' French coach Roger Lemerre said. 'There is no such thing as little and small wins. A win is win even if it's a friendly match.

'It would be very symbolic to clinch the tournament two years later,' he added.

The French coach insisted his team would not be taking the tournament lightly even though it lacks the kudos it had a few years ago when nations like Brazil took part.

'You must stay focused on the aim because you can lose a year of hard work and even a European Championship in a tournament like this one', he said. Lemerre said he was keen to give all 22 players in his Euro 2000 squad a run-out in the King Hassan Cup.

'I want to have everyone ready in 10 days. I want all my player to find a mental, physical and physiological balance to have them at 100 per cent on June 11,' he said.

Lemerre said he had all but decided his starting line-up for France's opening Euro 2000 match against Denmark but that he dreaded one of his key players picking up an injury over the next few days.

'Luckily my ideas are clear about the team but I still fear an injury wich I don't wish,' he said. Lemerre said he was likely to stick with recent French tactics of playing two defensive players in the midfield with Zinedine Zidane playing in the hole behind the strikers.

'Two plus two is a good balance,' he said. 'If you look carefully at how France have played over the last two years, you could see that 80 percent of the time we have only two defensive midfielders.'

Lemerre would not be drawn on who would play up front, saying only: 'I have top class strikers and I also have some options which was not always the case in the past.'