France in "permanent state of alert," Kouchner says

Jan 11, 2008, 10:18 GMT

Paris - As French anti-terrorist investigators look into a threat against Paris and its mayor, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the country was in 'a permanent state of alert against terrorism.'

It is necessary 'to weaken international terrorism, which we know is stirring,' particularly in North Africa, Kouchner told Europe 1 radio.

His comments came two days after the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into a call, issued on a website linked to al-Qaeda, for terrorist attacks against the French capital and its mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, in order to weaken President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The daily Le Figaro said the appeal was issued by someone using the pseudonym Murabit Muwahed on the site al-Ekhlass, which is often used by the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden.

A US centre specializing in monitoring al-Qaeda and other terrorist websites, the SITE Intelligence Group, informed French authorities about the threat on January 5.

Police said there had been a 'minor reinforcement' of the security around the Paris mayor because of the threat.