In the capital Bamako, about 100 demonstrators staged a sit-in outside the French embassy and waved placards accusing Sarkozy of racism and xenophobia and calling for "respectful cooperation".

"He is not in occupied territory, we refuse to be considered as animals," said youth leader Ousmane Keita.

Passed Wednesday by France's lower house of parliament, the draft law promotes "selected immigration", sets tougher conditions for immigrants coming to France by favouring skilled workers, and limits opportunities for migrants to reunite with their families.

It also eliminates automatic citizenship for long-term foreign residents.

"It's a reasonable text," Sarkozy said. "There are no alternative suggestions," he added, claiming three quarters of French people supported it.

There are tens of thousands of Malian immigrants in France, and Sarkozy's visit to Mali, after which he travels on to Benin, is designed to discuss the immigration question

Ahead of his arrival, hundreds of people joined political leaders in a protest march in the Malian capital Bamako organised by the Association of Expelled Malians.

Police blocked marchers from reaching the French embassy at the end of the protest, which was attended by members of the African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI).

SADI, which counts six members of parliament among its members, has said Sarkozy's visit was a "provocation" and described the law as "fundamentally racist".

Earlier in the week, 21 Malian lawmakers called for the cancellation of Sarkozy's trip, which they characterized as a "pure provocation" due to the timing of the parliamentary vote.

Malian opponents of Sarkozy's law planned further action Thursday, including a sit-in in front of a hotel where he was expected to speak on French-African relations.

Sarkozy said the protests were having little impact on his visit.

"Otherwise, I do not think (Malian) President Amadou Toumani Toure would receive me for lunch" on Thursday, he said.

He told journalists that he planned to defuse the situation during his visit, after already being branded a "racist" by the Malian daily Info-Matin ahead of his visit.

There are some 45,000 legal immigrants from Mali in France, and around the same number of illegal Malian immigrants, according to interior ministry figures.

These immigrants send home some EUR 180 million a year, the ministry said. French development aid to Mali totals EUR 210 million.

Sarkozy arrived in Bamako late Wednesday after the bill was passed earlier in the day by the lower house. It will be debated in June in the upper house of parliament before becoming law.

A poll published in France's Le Figaro newspaper said 76 percent of right-wing French voters and 71 percent of voters on the left supported the text.

However between 11,200 people, according to police, and 35,000, according to organisers, demonstrated against the bill on Saturday in Paris.

On his third trip to sub-Saharan Africa since 2002, Sarkozy is due to hold discussions on immigration, development projects and France's Africa-related policies with leaders in Mali and Benin.

He was due to head to Benin later Thursday for a visit lasting until Friday.

The claims turned out to be false, but Sarkozy believes he was the victim of a smear campaign ahead of the 2007 presidential elections in which he is a leading candidate.

In a long interview with Le Parisien, Gergorin set out his version of the extraordinarily complex affair - tracing his interest in Clearstream back to the March 2003 death of his former boss, media and armaments tycoon Jean-Luc Lagardère.

Convinced that the 75-year-old Lagardère - who died of a rare disease - might have been murdered, Gergorin "had the idea of seeing if there was any unusual interest in Lagardère shares in the weeks leading to his death."

Gergorin said he had a secret source able to tap into the computer records at Clearstream, a bank which was aleady under suspicion as an alleged conduit for international money-laundering. The bank vehemently denies the allegation.

In late 2003 the source sent Gergorin a list of 70 alleged Clearstream account holders, who included several French politicians and senior civil servants as well as "Russian billionaires and mafia members". Sarkozy's name did not feature on the list, he said.

Gergorin said he tried to interest the government in the list - which he thought to be an important lead in the fight against international crime and terrorism - and eventually arranged a meeting with Villepin, who was then foreign minister, in January 2004.

This meeting was also attended by spymaster General Philippe Rondot, who was charged there with setting up a secret enquiry into the list.

In an important piece of evidence, Gergorin said that Sarkozy's name as a possible account holder was not brought up at the meeting. This corroborates Villepin's version of events, which is that he did not order an enquiry that specifically targeted Sarkozy.

According to Gergorin, Sarkozy's name appeared in a subsequent list of Clearstream account holders sent by his source in April 2004.

Frustrated that Rondot's enquiry did not appear to be making headway, Gergorin decided to approach judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke, who was investigating illegal commissions paid in the sale of French warships to Taiwan.

"I turned down Van Ruymbeke's proposal that I make a formal submission (of the 70 names) ... so it was arranged that a summary of my information would be communicated to him. This was the anonymous letter of May 4, the first," Gergorin said.

A second list was sent to Van Ruymbeke in June 2004, this one bearing the names of Sarkozy and other politicians. But Gergorin refused to confirm whether he had also sent this one, saying he would reserve his comments for the judges looking into the affair.

Gergorin took leave of absence from EADS last week in order to defend himself in the Clearstream scandal.

The United States is still number one in terms of numbers of Internet users with 175 million, and broadband households, 43.7 million.

In terms of regions, however, Asia-Pacific has the largest number (315 million) and is the largest broadband center containing nearly 40 percent of the world's broadband households.

Latin America was the fastest growing broadband region worldwide, achieving 70 percent subscriber growth, the survey found. But it had just 70 million people online.

Europe had 233 million people online and 55.2 million broadband households. China had 111 million users and 34.1 million households with fast connections.

The report was based on a number of industry surveys and data from the International Telecommunication Union and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The report did not say when the construction will begin or be completed, nor did it give the total investment involved.

Energy hungry China is trying to diversify its energy mix by pushing the use of nuclear and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.

China's current nuclear generating capacity is 8,700 megawatts, just under two percent of total output.

With the nation's largest nuclear power generator, the Tianwan plant in Jiangsu province, due to come on line by the end of this year, China's nuclear power capacity will be over 9,100 megawatts, earlier press reports said.

China's national energy strategy has set a target for the country's nuclear power generation capacity to reach 40,000 megawatts, or four percent of China's total power output, by 2020.

China currently has nine nuclear reactors in operation, the China Daily said. To reach the target, China has to build at least one nuclear power station with a capacity of 1,800 megawatts per year.

The ambitious plan is being implemented in an effort to meet rising energy demand and build up alternatives to massive coal use, which is causing serious air pollution, acid rain and killing thousands of miners.