30 Oct 2009

Sarkozy to give French overseas sites heightened recognition

1:29 pm on 30 October 2009

Reports from Paris say the French President Nicolas Sarkozy is next week expected to present measures to mark the significance of each of France's overseas territories.

The reports say this will happen when he presides over an inter-ministerial committee for overseas possessions.

The news agency AFP says this may mean that the French Polynesian atolls of Moruroa and Hao may be labelled sites of remembrance and territorial pride.

The atolls were key places for the French military's testing of its nuclear weapons.

The initiative to designate such overseas sites was launched in February when the French Caribbean was in the grip of severe social unrest.