French President Jacques Chirac will today launch an intensive week of meetings with Asian leaders aimed at promoting French companies and cementing Europe-Asia ties.

French President Jacques Chirac is heading for a one-day visit to Moscow today for talks with President Vladimir Putin on the situation in Iraq, the European Union's expansion eastward and Russian and French aerospace cooperation.

French President Jacques Chirac today offered public support to the man once seen as his likely successor but now disgraced after being convicted for his role in a party financing scandal.

The French government has taken its first formal step toward legally banning the Muslim head scarf from public schools, adopting the measure in a Cabinet session.

IN a diplomatic victory for the United States, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution yesterday aimed at attracting more troops and money to stabilise Iraq and putting it on the road to independence.

World leaders clamped a harmonious face on a summit simmering with Iraq war disputes today, striking a united front with pledges of billions of dollars to fight Aids and hunger in poor nations.

France and Germany tonight reached a deal on farm spending that boosted chances of success at an EU summit to finalise the bloc’s expansion into eastern Europe.

President Jacques Chirac’s coalition of mainstream rightist parties appeared to be heading to take control of France’s parliament following a first-round vote today, exit polls showed.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin tonight named France’s first centre-right Cabinet in five years, selecting a veteran diplomat to lead the Foreign Ministry and for the first time a woman as head of defence.

Early turnout in the first round of voting for a French president was the lowest in two decades.

French President Jacques Chirac has responded angrily to a prosecutor’s ruling that he can be questioned as a witness in a scandal involving cash payments for personal trips while he was mayor.