French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said that France 24 will go off the air and be replaced by an exclusively French-language news channel.

The channel launched in December 2006, and broadcasts in French, English and Arabic. At the time, it was designed to present a French counterpoint to English language services such as CNN and BBC World.

In an announcement, Sarkozy said: "With taxpayers' money, I am not prepared to broadcast a channel that does not speak French."

He said that a new channel, France Monde, would be launched "as fast as possible, at any rate this year", and would bring together the newsgathering resources of France 24, TV5 and Radio France Internationale.

He added that subtitling in English, Arabic and Spanish would augment the channel which is designed "to carry a vision that is more French".