Adult sex with a minor under 15 will automatically be considered rape in France, the country's equality minister has confirmed, following public outrage over two cases involving 11-year old girls.

After conducting public consultations during a “tour of France on equality” and commissioning an expert report on the issue, “the government has decided to settle on the age of 15,” said Marlène Schiappa, the gender equality minister.

Currently, adult sex with a minor aged under 15 is classified as sexual assault or molesting, punishable by up to five years in prison, compared with 20 for rape.

Adults wielding some form of authority over the child face stiffer sentences.

However, the law does not automatically treat such cases as rape unless there is proof of force.

The government promised change after uproar over rulings last autumn in which two 11-year-old girls were deemed not to have been raped by much older men because they had apparently agreed to sex.

In one of the cases, a 30-year old man was acquitted after the court determined the girl had not been subjected to "constraint, threat, violence or surprise".

In the other, prosecutors initially decided the 28-year old man should be tried for molesting the 11-year-old but not rape as there was no sign of resistance. However, judges called for a new inquiry and a fresh probe into “rape of a 15-year-old” was opened last month.