PARIS, July 1: In an attempt to come to grips with the wide-ranging debate going on in France over the place in French society of external signs of religious affiliation, President Jacques Chirac has decided to name a special presidential commission to study the issue of secularism. It will make recommendations as to how issues such as the wearing of the headscarf can best be resolved.

Mr Chirac has named Bernard Stasi, a respected career civil servant who is already France’s officially-designated mediator, to head the commission.

The commission, says an Elysee Palace spokesman, will be asked to “enlarge the debate” over the issue of secularism in France, “all the while placing it at a high level.” Its model is a presidential commission on French nationality which in the 1990s had attempted to come to grips with the thorny problem of who should be allowed to become French and under what conditions.