The French cabinet has approved a bill making it illegal to wear in public clothes designed to hide the face.

The legislation amounts to a ban on the full-face Muslim veil.

Women wearing the veil in public could be fined, and men judged to have forced them to do so could be imprisoned.

Parliament needs to approve the bill and France's top legal advisory body has warned it may be unenforcable.

Parliament passed a non-binding resolution last week condemning the full Islamic face veil as "an affront to the nation's values of dignity and equality".

A law against conspicuous religious symbols effectively banned headscarves from state primary and secondary schools in 2004.
Belgian move

The proposed ban has sparked intense debate about religious freedom in a secular society, and the position of Muslims in France.

The bill puts France on course to become the second European country after Belgium to declare the wearing of such veils illegal in public places.

Opponents of the ban say it could alienate and stigmatise France's large Muslim minority.

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