Mayor Ken Livingstone will gather with Muslim leaders in London tomorrow to express opposition to French plans to ban the 'hijab' scarf in schools.

The Mayor will be joined by leaders from the Muslim Association of Britain and Muslim Women Society, along with other leaders from other religious communities, for a special press conference as the French parliament prepares to vote on the controversial ban of the hijab, along with other religious clothing and symbols, in public schools.

The vote in the lower house of the French Assembly is expected to be in favour of the bill to ban "conspicuous religious insignia" from state schools.

President Jacques Chirac claims the bill will preserve the separation of state and religion that has long been enshrined in French laws.

But critics say the law is against the rights of the individual, and that the furore over the introduction of the law is playing into the hands of far right politicians.

Mayor Livingstone has already written to the French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, asking him to reconsider the ban on religious clothing.