PARIS To the diminutive French president Nicolas Sarkozy, size clearly matters. But the Gallic leader - who has been mocked for wearing stacked heels and standing on tiptoes for official photographs - need no longer fret about being made to look small by his country's officers of the law.

A new decree has abolished the 1.60m minimum height for recruits to the French police force, the Police Nationale, declaring the selection of candidates on such criteria as “no longer justified”.

Customs officers and prison guards have also been told they no longer have to measure up to a minimum height.

“Employment conditions in the service does not justify selection candidates according to such criteria,” said an interior ministry statement.

The French leader has been known to go to great lengths to conceal his stature.

At 1.65m, 2.5cm shorter than Napoleon, he has even been reported as occasionally insisting on being surrounded by those of a similar height. During a visit to a car factory near Caen in Normandy last September, workers who greeted the president told French television they had been selected because they were shorter than him.

Sarkozy aides were reportedly keen to avoid a repeat of the D-day debacle in June earlier that year, when Sarkozy stood next to 1.85m Barack Obama and 1.80m Gordon Brown during the 65th anniversary commemoration ceremony. Sarkozy was also embarrassed by photographs that revealed he was standing on a box hidden behind the podium while making his speech.

His wife, model turned singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy rarely wears heels when accompanying him.

The decree has also paved the way for those with physical disabilities to enter certain branches of the police, prison and customs services. Customs officers will no longer have to prove they have “full use of their upper and lower limbs”, or boast an “elocution and pronunciation allowing their words to be normally understood”.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service