A French parliamentary committee has recommended a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils.

The committee's near 200-page report has proposed a ban in hospitals, schools and on public transport.

France has been debating whether to ban face-covering Muslim veils with President Nicolas Sarkozy recently speaking out against them.

The French interior ministry says just 1,900 women in France wear the full veils.

In its report, the committee said: "The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable. We must condemn this excess."

The parliamentary report also recommends that anyone showing visible signs of what it called "radical religious practice" should be refused residence cards and citizenship.

Release of the document is expected to be followed by the drafting of a bill and a parliamentary debate on the issue.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield, in Paris, says the reasoning behind the report is to make it as impractical as possible for women in face veils to go about their daily business.

There is also a fear that an outright ban would not only be impractical but would be distasteful and could make France a target for terrorism, our correspondent says.

France has an estimated five million Muslims - the largest such population in western Europe.

Speaking earlier this month, Mr Sarkozy said the veil was "not welcome in France".

However, he did not explicitly call for a ban, saying "no one should feel stigmatised" by any eventual law.