Michel claimed seeing a girl wearing hijab "in schools, hospitals and other state-run institutions is really a cause for concern".

Additional Reporting By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent

BRUSSELS , January 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Belgium 's ministers locked horns over following the French example by passing a law banning hijab in state schools.

Minister of Public Administration, Social Integration and City Policy Marie Arena said Saturday, January 10, that she opposes such a legislation.

Arena's remarks came after Interior Minister Patrick Dewael nodded in favor of banning hijab and religious symbols in state schools and institutions, like France .

In a December televised speech, French President Jacques Chirac said the hijab, the Jewish kippa and large crosses had no place in the precincts of state schools.

Speaking to the Belgian news agency, Arena warned that national unity was at stake after Dewael's "hard-line and hostile" remarks, adding he should have conferred with other colleagues in the government beforehand.

In an interview with the Belgian German-language Der Morgen newspaper, Dewael said Belgium should remain neutral and ban any religious symbol in state-run schools and institutions.

His comments echoed similar ones by Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who told the French-language Le Soire daily he was "shocked" to see students wearing hijab in state schools.

Michel went as far as claiming that hijb-clad girls fuel extremists, arguing hijab was incompatible with the secular nature of the country.

"If [Muslim] women were oppressed by hijab, then it did not go with secularism," he said.

Saying he does not mind seeing a girl wearing hijab in the street, Michel alleged that "in schools, hospitals and other state-run institutions (this) is really a cause for concern".

He dodged a question on measures the Belgian authorities would take if Muslim students insisted on wearing hijab, answering the country paid due attention to equality between men and women.

Earlier in the month, two Belgian senators presented a draft law to the Senate to ban hijab in state schools.

Both lawmakers argued that banning hijab would preserve the secular identity of the state, protect ethnic minorities and help them integrate into society.

The increasingly growing opposition to hijab in European countries comes as tens of thousands of people are preparing for worldwide marches to French diplomatic missions around the world on January 17, in a collective appeal for Paris to backtrack on the planned anti-hijab law.