A French cartoonist who missed last week's massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo because he was late for work has described how he broke down in tears after drawing the cover of the magazine's latest edition.

Renald Luzier, known as Luz, shed tears again during an emotional media conference held to launch the latest edition of the satirical magazine, the first since two gunmen stormed its offices in Paris and killed 12 people.

An alleged accomplice of the men killed a police officer near a Paris Metro station a day later and four Jews during a siege at a kosher supermarket on Friday. All three attackers were killed.

Luz, who moved nervously in front of the press after entering the media conference to applause, told how he wrestled with the process of what to draw.

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He also defended including the Prophet Mohammed in cover of the edition which has hit newsstands across France.

At first his attempts reflected the gruesome scene at the crime scene but then it turned to drawing the Prophet of Islam, despite the danger that posed for the magazine.

"Then there was nothing else but that, this idea of drawing Mohammed, I am Charlie. And I looked at him. He was crying. And above it I wrote, 'All is forgiven', and I cried," he said.

"And it was the front page. We had found the front page. We had finally found that bloody front page. And it was our front page. It was not the front page the world wanted us to make, but it was the one that we wanted to make.

"It was not the front page the terrorists wanted us to make, because there are no terrorists in it. There is just a man crying, a guy crying - it's Mohammed.

"I am sorry we drew him again, but the Mohammed we drew is a guy crying above all."

The controversial weekly, which lampoons everyone from the president to the Pope, has become a symbol of freedom of expression in the wake of the bloodshed.

The magazine is planning to print up to 3 million copies of its "survivors' issue" - profit from which will go to victims' families - far more than its usual 60,000 and a historic record for a French publication.

French and Italian versions will be printed, while translations in English, Spanish and Arabic will be offered in electronic form, editor-in-chief Gerard Biard said.

Terror attack 'doesn't change France'

Laurent Joffrin, the editor-in-chief of the left-wing newspaper Liberation that has supported the Charlie Hebdo survivors, praised the front page and denied the attack would change France or the way its press operates.

"[Luz] is very courageous. Great courage," he said.

"It [the attacks] doesn't change France. It sends back France to its roots, its origins. Republic is our identity, real identity, not the baguette."

Francois Hollande awarded police officers slain in the attacks with the Legion of Honour. ( AFP: Patrick Kovarik )

Despite the overwhelming show of support for the magazine in the wake of the shooting, the cartoon has already drawn ire from Muslim groups, who warned that it could inflame tensions among those who believe the depiction of the prophet is blasphemous.

Egypt's state-sponsored Islamic authority, Dar al-Ifta, said the cover was "an unjustified provocation against the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims".

"This edition will result in a new wave of hatred in French and Western society," it said.

Perth Imam Yahya Ibrahim said the depiction crossed a line and was offensive.

"I am offended that something that is known that would bring offence to me would still be done," Imam Ibrahim said.

However, Joffrin said he did not anticipate a backlash.

"You cannot bet on the stupidity of people, but I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's not the question," he said.

"The question we must not work asking yourself [is] if there is a risk. If you do that, you don't do nothing."

French president Francois Hollande told grieving relatives of three slain police officers that they had "died so that we could live in freedom" and vowed France "will never yield" in its fight against religious extremists, as he posthumously awarded them the Legion of Honour.

Prime minister Manuel Valls, in a speech that drew several standing ovations, called for the country to pull together after the attack, arguing that "France is at war against terrorism, jihadism, radicalism... [not] Islam and Muslims".

"I don't want Jews in this country to be scared, or Muslims to be ashamed [of their faith]," he added, calling for France's intelligence capabilities and anti-terrorism laws to be strengthened and "clear failings" addressed.

France has ordered 10,000 troops and additional police to guard sensitive sites across the country, including tourist landmarks and Jewish schools.

ABC/AFP