FRENCH women could be banned from wearing the full Islamic veil in public under legislation to be proposed by Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling party next month.

Jean-Francois Cope, parliamentary leader of the rightwing majority UMP, said a law banning face-covering in public places would be submitted to parliament early next year.

Citing concerns over women's freedom and “public order”, he said a total ban was justified by growing fears over equality in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population. Cope's proposal, which is backed by a number of MPs in Sarkozy's party, is considerably more hardline than another suggested measure that would aim to outlaw face-covering in public services such as post offices and town halls.

“We are going further than had been initially envisaged,” Cope said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He rebuffed claims such a step would be an affront to individual freedoms.

Debate about the burka or niqab, and its compatibility with the republican values of freedom, secularism and gender equality, has been raging in France since Sarkozy called for a parliamentary commission to investigate it in June.

That committee, which has been hearing evidence from a wide range of figures over the past six months, wrapped up its work last week and is due to report back to parliament next month.

But Cope's law will be put forward before those results are made public. Many accused him of rushing into heavy-handed legislation in an area that needed to be treated with the utmost sensitivity.

“The UMP says that a law is essential. I would like to see all other possibilities explored first,” said Francois Sauvadet, parliamentary chief of the centrist Nouveau Centre party.

He has, however, also spoken out in favour of some kind of law banning the burka, a stance which polls have shown has considerable public support. France is in the middle of an incendiary debate about national identity and immigration that has often focused on the integration of the country's six million Muslims.

— The Guardian, London