In an address to both houses of the French Parliament, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy has opposed the wearing of the Muslim burqa in public. Mr Sarkozy said that the full body religious gown is a sign of subservience for women that undermines their dignity. He was speaking at the Palace of Versailles.

ASHLEY HALL: The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has used an historic address at the Palace of Versailles to attack the Muslim burqa.

Mr Sarkozy said that the full body religious gown is a sign of subservience for women that undermines their dignity.

He made the comments during a special sitting of both Houses of the French Parliament.

Europe correspondent Emma Alberici.

EMMA ALBERICI: Not once in the past 136 years has a French president addressed senators and MPs at the Palace of Versailles.

The argument against it has always been that Parliament should preserve its independence from the president but President Nicolas Sarkozy changed the rules. That was controversial but perhaps not as controversial as what he used the address for - stating that Muslim burqa was an affront to women.

NICOLAS SARKOZY (translated): The burqa is not a sign of religion. It is a sign of enslavement. It is a sign of subservience.

(Sound of applause)

EMMA ALBERICI: The French leader spoke in favour of a recent call by 65 French MPs to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full body garment in France.

NICOLAS SARKOZY (translated): I want to say officially, it will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.

We cannot accept in our country women imprisoned behind netting, cut off from any social life, deprived of any identity.

This is not the idea the French Republic has of a woman's dignity.

EMMA ALBERICI: Some parliamentarians boycotted Mr Sarkozy's historic speech, dismissing the President's address as nothing more than a public relations stunt, but President Sarkozy struck a chord among the French population, who voted overwhelmingly in favour of his centre-right UMP party in the recent European elections.

Jacques Reland is head of European research at the Global Policy Institute at the London Metropolitan University. He is a keen observer of French politics.

JACQUES RELAND: In France most people don't like to broadcast. I mean, you know, I think a lot of people in France feel really ill at ease with the burqa. I'm pretty sure that a lot of French people are saying "Yes, that is the way it should be".

EMMA ALBERICI: Sarah Joseph is the editor of Britain's only Muslim lifestyle magazine, Emel. She says that many Muslim women use the burqa as an expression of their faith and are not forced to wear it by anyone else.

SARAH JOSEPH: I mean, I colour my hair. I don't wear an Abaya or any long cloak myself but I will defend someone's right to do so or not to do so and if you deny a woman's right to choose, that is denying them dignity and denying them their freedom and it won't create a society of more integrated French citizens, it will create a division in France which will be very unfortunate and deny women their right to participate fully in French society.

EMMA ALBERICI: Nicolas Sarkozy says he's just defending a secular state. France is home to an estimated five million Muslims. In 2004, the country passed a law forbidding any conspicuous religious symbols from state schools, including veils which were also banned in government offices.

(Report by Emma Alberici)