WADA President Sir Craig Reedie said the additional funds will be put to good use in support of its "enhanced investigations capacity".

It comes on the heels of the now-concluded investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren, who found 1,000 Russian athletes had doping samples manipulated and tampered with between 2011 and 2015 at events including the 2014 Winter and Paralympic Games in Sochi. 

The contribution is additional to France’s 2016 contribution of €710,038 (£617,059/$749,825), which was increased by €46,210 (£40,207/$48,875) over 2015, and to its contribution in 2015 of €150,000 (£130,000/$158,000) towards WADA’s special anti-doping research fund.

"WADA is very grateful for this generous donation made by the Government of France," Sir Craig said.

"The gesture is a tangible demonstration of France’s ongoing commitment to partner with WADA to uphold the spirit of sport.

"We’re happy to see that investigations and testing are becoming increasingly interdependent, which is making life much tougher for those who choose to cheat."

The decision of the French Government to wait until December to make the latest contribution could be questioned given that WADA has long been seeking extra money from Governments.

French capital Paris is currently bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, competing against Budapest and Los Angeles. 

In March of last year, Sir Craig used a much-publicised speech in Lausanne to argue for better funding.

He claimed that if full-blown investigations were to become the norm, "we must of course seriously explore greater funding for our community".

French Sports Minister Patrick Kanner said the French Government is pleased to support WADA’s investigative work via the additional contribution.

He believes it recognises the "quality and impact" of WADA’s first Independent Commission investigation into suspicious activity in Russia, leading to the country’s athletics federation being suspended in November 2015, and last year’s probe by McLaren.

"It is extremely important that WADA is enabled to continue its investigations work, which over the last two years has permitted the Agency to reveal a disturbing level of manipulation, cheating and corruption in sport," Kanner said.

France’s Secretary of State for Sport Thierry Braillard added: "France is committed to strengthening the Agency’s ability to combat doping in sport by all means at its disposal and believes that investigations have proven themselves key in this regard."

WADA also confirmed that, in order to support its efforts in combating international trafficking of doping substances, the Government seconded a French customs agent to the World Customs Organization in September.

At present, WADA is funded 50-50 by Governments and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with both sides under pressure to step-up their respective contributions.

The IOC had rejected WADA's call for a blanket Russian ban from Rio 2016, which President Thomas Bach had claimed was the "nuclear option".

It instead handed responsibility to International Federations to make decisions about their specific sport and whether Russians should be allowed to compete at Rio 2016.

Since then there have been discussions about reforming the global anti-doping system.