PARIS: To stop the stream of French youths pursuing jihad in Syria, France is preparing to try to tackle terrorism before it starts, by involving schools, parents and local Muslim leaders.

This is part of a plan prompted by fears that young radicals who travel to Syria could return home with the skills and motivation to carry out attacks – a Europe-wide concern. French officials say the plan, still-confidential, will be made public soon.

The fears resurfaced last week when authorities revealed the discovery near Cannes of three soda cans packed with nails, bolts and explosives plus bomb-making instructions at the apartment of a 23-year-old man who had returned from Syria. Memories are still fresh of a Muslim Frenchman who gunned down children at a Toulouse Jewish school in 2012, reportedly after training in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

To combat terrorism, France amassed one of the West’s toughest legal arsenals following terrorist attacks in the 1990s, focusing on prosecuting proven extremists instead of trying to prevent radicalisation.

That’s about to change, according to several top government officials. They spoke after President Francois Hollande convened a special council last week and adopted a strategy to counter the accelerating threat posed by hundreds of French heading to Syria.

“We are working upstream,” said one high-ranking security official. “That’s new in France.”

Another government official said France “is not on the forefront when it comes to the prevention of radicalisation”. They said France had consulted British authorities to try to learn from similar efforts there.

The new French push will be a challenge in a country where distrust runs high between police and minority youth in hardscrabble housing projects, and provokes occasional riots. And it could prompt controversy if it is directed solely at Islam.

France, a secular nation that demands a clear separation between church and state, has been accused of stigmatising Muslims with measures such as banning veils.

The new French government plan also includes tough measures to bolster intelligence and border surveillance, including restricting minors from leaving France, the officials said.

Authorities also want to improve cooperation with counterparts in Turkey, a key route into Syria for fighters.

French authorities said in January that up to 700 French had left for Syria, were planning to go or die in battle. The migration to Syria – including teens as young as 15 – far outstrips the number of Europeans who left for Iraq and Afghanistan in years past.

French officials say the West’s vehement stance against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime may, for vulnerable youth, have conferred some legitimacy on fighting the regime. Some youths see themselves as defenders of a civilian population under assault. Others see glory in helping to seize territory with the dream of creating an Islamic state.

Not all those travelling to Syria become hardened jihadis. Some even turn back. France wants to prevent them from taking the journey in the first place.

That includes working with

local governments, schools and religious leaders in the country with Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, at least 5 million. It remains to be seen how teachers and parents will be expected to identify potential extremism.

The plan would involve the French Council for the Muslim Faith, a conduit for the government with the country’s Muslim communities. Dalil Boubakeur, the group’s president, says it is working with authorities “to understand why these youths are drawn to this”.

A top French expert in Islam said some town governments had already worked with French intelligence on detecting potential jihadis, but now the government wants to do it more systematically and overtly.

Authorities want to offer vulnerable youth an alternative to the world view offered by jihad recruiters. Local prevention centres would reach out to families of youth who have started radicalising, officials said. The thrust meshes well with Mr Hollande’s focus on education and his Socialists’ penchant for community outreach.

“From a security point of view, it doesn’t make sense to rely on the repressive approach alone,” said terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp of the Swedish National Defence College.

Security should not be “the first and only recourse…There will always be fires breaking out,” said Mr Ranstorp. “The preventative approach is the only way forward.’’

Denmark and the Netherlands are among nations with such programmes, along with Britain.