France to bar radical Muslims from conference

France will bar radical Muslim preachers from entering the country to participate in an Islamic conference next month as part of a crackdown after shootings by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, president Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy, who has announced plans to punish those viewing Islamist websites and going abroad for indoctrination, said he would block the entry of some imams invited to a congress organised by the Union of French Islamic Organisations.

The union, one of three Muslim federations in France, is regarded as close to Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.