During a visit to the Vatican last month, Sarkozy, a twice-divorced who defines himself as a "cultural Catholic", urged a more active role for religion in public life.

He declared: "We should uphold both sides -- accept the Christian roots of France ... while defending secularism," he said.

"We don’t want to change the law separating church and state. The French don’t want that and the religions don’t want it either."

Sarkozy said France needed "convinced Catholics who are not afraid to say who they are and what they believe." "Someone who believes is someone who hopes," he said. "It is in the republic’s interest to have many men and women who hope."

While on a visit In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier this week, he hailed Islam as "one of the greatest and most beautiful civilizations the world has known" and described his Saudi hosts as rulers who "appeal to the basic values of Islam to combat the fundamentalism that negates them".

"This is not respect for the separation of church and state," Socialist opposition leader Francois Hollande said.

"This is an ideological stand that makes religion into an instrument to promote French products (such as) civilian nuclear plants for Muslim countries," he said.

"Mixing religion and foreign policy is illogical and wrong."
At issue is Sarkozy’s break with a French tradition that sees faith strictly as a private affair.

This began with the 1905 law and grew into a kind of political correctness that made bringing religion into public affairs a major taboo.

The dispute flared up in the parliament on Wednesday, with Socialist MP Jean Glavany attacking the Riyadh speech: "A speech citing God not only on every page, but on every line, creates a fundamental problem for the republic."

Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie responded by saying the government wanted "to help all spiritualities to express themselves, including those based on atheism".

Although the 1905 law aimed at undercutting the vast influence the Roman Catholic Church once wielded in France, Church leaders now are reserved about any reforms that could upset the status quo and revive anti-clerical movements.

By contrast, the five-million-strong Muslim minority, the largest in Europe, would appreciate reforms that would help them finance mosque building and expand training for imams.

On Thursday, the French president underlined his attachment "to the principle of secularity" during a speech at the Elysée palace to France’s religious authorities, including the country's chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk.