France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has said the new centre-right government wants to tighten controls on the sale of weapons.

Mr Sarkozy, who was presenting a draft bill on domestic security to the National Assembly, said the government wanted to introduce more controls prior to the sale of guns.

Mr Sarkozy wants to see more controls prior to the sale of guns

The announcement follows the attack against French President Jacques Chirac on Sunday by a man who tried to shoot him at the annual Bastille Day parade.

"Several recent tragedies have reminded us that appropriate measures must be found to deal with the uncontrolled use of weapons," Mr Sarkozy said on Tuesday.

"Our current regulation is far too complex and ultimately ineffective. We will simplify it and we will ensure that no gun can be handed over without minimal prior checks," the minister told deputies.

French law requires gun licence applicants to submit medical records and police checks, although rifles like the one used by Mr Brunerie fall in a different category that is freely on sale.

'Drawing conclusions'

Mr Chirac's attacker, Maxime Brunerie, 25, was committed to a mental hospital on Monday.

Investigators have spoken to his parents after their hasty return from holiday in Spain.

"They are dumb-struck and cannot understand what must have gone through their son's head," said a police official, quoted by the French news agency.

Presidential protection

Personal: One doctor, two bodyguards At the Elysee Palace: 250 Republican Guards Travelling in France: 50 police and gendarmes for close protection Travelling abroad: 15 elite bodyguards and a medical team

Police also questioned people within the far-right circles Mr Brunerie moved in.

He is expected to remain in a psychiatric hospital for at least a month, after which officials will determine whether to keep him in hospital or send him to prison.

Mr Sarkozy is reported to have requested a report from the Paris police chief to "draw conclusions from the incident".

Some 4,000 police, either plain-clothed or in uniform, were present at the parade on Sunday, along with sharpshooters and two fighter jets patrolling the Paris skies.

Mr Chirac also has, as a general rule, a doctor available to him and two bodyguards to ensure his personal protection.

Far-right links

Prosecutors said a judicial investigation for attempted murder had been opened to determine whether Mr Brunerie was "criminally responsible for his actions" at the time of the shooting.

They believe Mr Brunerie acted alone, although he was a member of the far-right organisation Radical Unity and had stood for the far-right National Republican Movement (MNR) in municipal elections in Paris in 2001.

The student and part-time chauffeur who lived in the southern Paris suburb of Evry is said to have bought the hunting rifle he used a week before the attack.

He allegedly posted a message on the website of British neo-Nazi group Combat 18, urging users to watch the television on Sunday, although it did not spell out his intention to shoot the president.

He had told friends of his desire to kill the president, although they did not take him seriously, police said.

Mr Brunerie was overpowered by bystanders after firing at the president's jeep with a .22 rifle near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.