Valls 'Open' To Ban On Foreign Funding Of Mosques

France's prime minister has said he is "open" to an interim ban on the foreign financing of mosques in the country following a spate of attacks claimed by Islamic extremists.

Manuel Valls also called for imams to be "trained in France, not elsewhere" and said the nation needed to forge "a new relationship" with Islam.

He said he was "open to the idea that - for a period yet to be determined - there should be no financing from abroad for the construction of mosques".

Security forces in France are under scrutiny after it emerged both jihadists who slit the throat of a Catholic priest at a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on Tuesday were known to police.

Nineteen-year-old Adel Kermiche was awaiting trial on terror charges and had been placed under house arrest and was wearing a tag, having attempted to twice travel to Syria.

The electronic monitor was turned off for a few hours each morning to allow him to leave home - and it was in this time that he and his accomplice Abdelmalik Petitjohn took several people hostage and killed 86-year-old Father Jacques Hamel .

Petitjean, also 19, was identified through an ID found at Kermiche's home, French media reported. He is believed to have been on a watch list like Kermiche.

Both Mr Valls and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve have come under fire for perceived security failings that have failed to prevent three major terror attacks in France in 18 months.

Mr Valls admitted it was a "failure" Kermiche had been released with an electronic tag pending trial.

He conceded the possibility of further attacks on French soil and that the fight against terrorism would involve a long war.

"But we will win," he asserted.

The church attack comes almost two weeks after the Bastille Day massacre in Nice which left 84 people dead after Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck into a crowd celebrating the national holiday on 14 July.

On 13 November, 2015, 130 people were killed during a series of coordinated terror strikes across Paris.