France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has cancelled a meeting with Lebanon's Grand Mufti after refusing to wear a headscarf.

The meeting was part of Ms Le Pen's three-day visit to Lebanon, where she has been meeting senior officials to bolster her foreign policy credentials.

She was scheduled to meet Grand Sunni Muslim Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian on Tuesday morning.

But shortly after she arrived at his office, one of his aides tried to give her a headscarf to put on - and she refused.

Ms Le Pen said she had met in the past with the Grand Mufti of Egypt's Al-Azhar, one of the world's top Sunni clerics, without wearing a veil.


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She was heard telling an official: "I met the Grand Mufti of Al Azhar, he didn't ask for this. So it's a no.

"The highest Sunni authority in the world did not have this demand, so I have no reason to, but it's nothing serious, you can pass on to the Grand Mufti my considerations but I am not putting the veil on."

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Once she was told that customs are different in Lebanon, Ms Le Pen was heard saying "let's go" and walked towards her car.

The cleric's press office said Ms Le Pen's aides had been informed beforehand that a headscarf was required for the meeting, and expressed "surprise" at her refusal.

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French law bans headscarves in the public service and for high school pupils, in the name of church-state separation and equal rights for women.

Ms Le Pen wants to extend this ban to all public places, a measure that would affect Muslims most of all.

On Monday Ms Le Pen met the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and said she believed keeping Syria's Bashar al Assad as the best way to defeat Islamic State in Syria.

Ms Le Pen is leading the polls for the first round of France's presidential election in April, but the same polls show she would lose the deciding round in May.