The disgraced US rider, stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life for serial drug-taking, held face-to-face talks with Bassons in a Paris hotel, sports daily L'Equipe reported on Saturday.

"The most important thing for me is to tell you in private that I'm sorry," the paper quoted Armstrong as telling Bassons in the Friday meeting. Bassons was riding for Festina when the team became embroiled in a doping scandal in 1998.