5:36pm UK, Friday July 22, 2005

The French government is to crackdown on suspected Islamic radicals by putting them under tighter surveillance in the aftermath of the latest bombing attempts in London.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said action will be taken immediately to secure the safety of the French people.

180 Paris eiffel tower france

France launches crackdown

Mr Sarkozy has pledged to expel Muslim leaders who preach hatred and strip them of their French citizenship.

He said: "We have decided it's necessary to improve our means of video surveillance, speed up everything we know about telephone use and data storage and take broad action on the tracking of radical elements."

"When one sees the age of the young kamikazes of London, one sees the responsibility that radical clerics have toward weak spirits."

"I have no intention of tolerating it."

He has convened a meeting of counter-terrorism, police and domestic intelligence officials to reassess the threat to France.

The meeting, which included top officials from counter-terrorism agency DST and the police intelligence service, was called to examine France's readiness for a possible attack and evaluate the terror threat.

After the deadly July 7 subway and bus bombings in London, France raised its terror alert status to the second-highest level: Red.

French officials say a third of the nation's 1,200 imams do not speak French, and that keeping closer tabs on them as well as on Muslim associations is key to rooting out radical elements.

France has the largest population of Muslims in western Europe - about 5 million, most from former French colonies in North Africa such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Paris was hit with a series of bombings on its Metro subway system in 1995 carried out by Algerian Islamic militants who killed eight people and wounded about 200.