June 30, 2003	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 29,1424

PARIS, June 29: A high-ranking member of President Jacques Chirac’s governmental coalition says that in his estimation Israel should be allowed to become a member of the association of Francophone states that includes the countries where French is spoken either as an official or major tongue.

According to Francois Bayrou, president of the UDF (Union pour la democratic Francaise), a political party which is also close to European Union convention president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Israel had the “right” to belong to “la Francophonie,” as the group is informally called.