U.S. regulators told Illinois officials Friday they will examine a flu vaccine manufactured in France before clearing it for use by state residents.

A representative from Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office met in Washington, D.C., with officials from the Food and Drug Administration regarding the vaccine Blagojevich wants to buy for nursing home residents and hospitalized children.

The 262,000 doses located by the Blagojevich administration were made by Aventis Pasteur, a French drug company with a plant in Pennsylvania. A U.S. shortage of the flu vaccine developed earlier this month after British regulators closed a plant in Liverpool.

The FDA will contact Aventis to get records showing how the vaccine was made, Blagojevich said.

“They need to be comfortable that that French manufacturer is supplying the same vaccines that the one in Pennsylvania supplies,” Blagojevich said.

Governor’s spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said later the Blagojevich administration also offered to send its own regulators to Europe with FDA officials next week when they inspect plants run by GlaxoSmithKline. It has 4 million doses to sell the United States, and Illinois has a deal to buy up to 100,000 of those.