Hawzah News Agency-With less than two weeks to go before the first round of the right-wing primary elections, Speaking to a crowd of conservative supporters, the hardline candidate said that Muslim and Jewish children who refused to eat pork at school would have to eat “chips or nothing”.

French state schools do not offer halal or kosher meat, and never will, he said: “Some school children have special dietary needs.

'I will not tolerate any religious demands in school menus', says Sarkozy

He said: “If a student comes from a family who does not eat pork, well then, if ham and chips is on the school menu that day, the child can ask for a double portion of chips instead.”

He said: “The republican model of integration has failed. We face two dangers: Muslim extremists, whom we must exterminate, and political Islam, which puts French values to test.”

Mr Sarkozy also said the French interior minister should have the power to arrest “all” dangerous terror suspects who pose a significant threat to national security.

He warned: “If we do not act now, in 10 years’ time, Muslim women will be ashamed to step outside without the full-face Islamic veil.”