Women who wear the burka in France should be banned from using public transport or receiving state handouts, a government spokesman has said.

The call came just one day after the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, the UMP, said that Muslim women wearing full face veils should not be granted French nationality.

Now UMP party spokesman Frederic Lefebvre has demanded any woman breaking a proposed law making the garment illegal should be 'deprived of her rights'.

He said: 'When you don't respect your responsibilities, you should not have access to any benefits.

'The rights and responsibilities of citizens in France are important.

'When you ignore rules that make things illegal, like a ban on the burka, you have have some of your rights taken away, like the right to state benefits or using public transport.'

Ruling UMP party chief Xavier Bertrand said on Sunday that women who wear burkas and niqabs should not be allowed to acquire French citizenship.

He said: 'The full veil is simply a prison for women who wear it and will make no one believe a woman wearing it wants to integrate.' 

President Sarkozy has branded Islamic face veils 'a sign of debasement that imprison women' and said they are not welcome in his country.

As the national debate raged on Islamic headwear, Sarkozy said last week he wants MPs to vote on a total ban on all full face veils in France.

The burka is a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with a mesh screen over the face, and the niqab is a full-body veil with slits for the eyes.

A parliamentary inquiry into the garments is due to be published on January 26.

Another prominent UMP member Jean-Francois Cope also proposed in December that women should be fined more than £700 for wearing the burka and the niqab in public.

And any man forcing a woman to cover her face burka should be fined even more, with those who refuse to pay up facing arrest and prison, Mr Cope said.

The country's immigration minister Eric Besson described them as 'an affront to national identity'.

Women's rights groups and left wing MPs have gone even further, descibing the item as a 'walking coffin'.

But many left-wing politicians have warned that cautioned that a draconian law banning the burka could enflame tensions in the Muslim community, that it would be difficult to enforce and could face a challenge in the European Court of Human Rights.

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