French election issues shape up

THE separation of church and state is shaping up as an early hot-button issue for France’s next presidential election as rival politicians begin jockeying for votes among the large Muslim minority.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the ambitious interior minister already planning his campaign for the 2007 contest, staked out the issue last week by appointing a commission to study possible changes to the law dividing the spiritual and temporal spheres.

President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin fired back at the weekend, reaffirming their support for the 100-year-old law on secularism and announcing a change “is not on the agenda”.