Quote:Chantal Brunel, a French MP and member of Nicolas Sarkozy's party, has called for a return to a system of licensed brothels in the country.

"Women selling sex should be allowed to do so legally on special licensed premises," said Brunel, an MP for the UMP party, who was appointed last month as head of the national watchdog on sexual equality.

"This would free thousands of women from the exploitation they suffer at the hands of pimps and criminal gangs and offer them much more security they currently have on the streets.

"It would give them a legal taxable income and they would not be handing over large sums of their earning to a pimp," she said.

Brunel's proposals appear to be supported by the French public. A national poll by the CSA agency found that 59 per cent approved reopening regulated brothels. The plans were supported more by men (70 per cent) than by women (49 per cent), yet only 13 per cent of women were opposed, according to the poll for Le Parisien.

Sarkozy had previously come down hard on France's sex industry. Back in 2003, while interior minister, he made "passive solicitation" a crime punishable by a jail term - meaning women could be judged to have been soliciting just by their appearance, even if they had not approached a potential customer.

Critics, however, say the 'Sarkozy law' only forced prostitutes into more dangerous circumstances. Brunel, once a supporter of the law, appears to agree.

Quote:Italian seaside town planning miniskirt ban
A seaside city in Italy is planning to ban miniskirts and other revealing clothing to improve what the mayor calls standards of public decency.

Castellammare di Stabia is trying to be the latest location in Italy to make use of new powers to crack down on what is deemed to be anti-social behaviour.

Mayor Luigi Bobbio said the regulations would help "restore urban decorum and facilitate better civil co-existence".

Offenders would face fines of between 25 and 500 euros (10p-£2*).

"Nothing too revealing" is the new policy Mayor Bobbio wants to enforce, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome.

That means a tough new dress code which would effectively outlaw everything from miniskirts to low-cut jeans when people walk around Castellammare di Stabia, our correspondent adds.

Mr Bobbio, from the centre-right People of Freedom party, says he wants to target people who are "rowdy, unruly or simply badly behaved".

There will also be a ban on sunbathing, playing football in public places, and blasphemy, if the proposals are approved at a council meeting on Monday.

Castellammare di Stabia is latest city to make use of the extra powers ... in the effort to fight crime and confront anti social behaviour.

In other places they have banned sandcastles, kissing in cars, feeding stray cats, wooden clogs and the use of lawn mowers at weekends.