By MarieBenedicte Allaire

TROYES, France, Sept 23 (Reuter) President Jacques Chirac reiterated
on Wednesday that France would maintain controls along its northern
borders to stop drug runners despite the Schengen openborder pact
between some European Union states.

He said during a visit to Troyes in northeastern France that continuing
drugtrafficking to and from the Netherlands made the controls necessary.

Chirac also sniped at French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet, who
recently admitted to having smoked marijuana, as a leftright controversy
raged over her suggestion that soft drugs should be legalised.

``Despite pressure, I will not budge on northern border controls,
despite the inconvenience for Belgians,'' Chirac said in a
questionandanswer session with social workers.

Chirac said 90 percent of illegal drugs moving through France came from
the Netherlands or were bound for it from the Mediterranean port of
Marseille.

France, which has repeatedly accused Dutch authorities of being too soft
on drugs, has maintained border controls at some key entry points,
refusing to fully implement the Schengen agreement for open borders and
passportfree movement.

The issue is a running diplomatic sore between France and the
Netherlands as well as between France and Belgium, which is angry at
Paris' unilateral insistence on border checks.

France shares no border with the Netherlands and checks traffic on the
most direct route through Belgium. But it leaves the French border with
its key ally Germany, a slight detour, wide open.

France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal and
Germany are all full Schengen members. Greece, Italy and Austria have
signed the accord but have yet to put the required legislation into
place. The other five EU members are not taking part in the accord.

The last stage of lifting the controls is to come into effect on April 1
next year, meaning in principle that anyone would be able to travel from
Hamburg to Naples or Madrid to Vienna without having their passport
checked by border police in the course of their journey.

In a clear swipe at Voynet, Chirac said that consuming soft drugs
``inevitably leads to hard drugs.

``All serious people are aware of this,'' he said.

Greens leader Voynet, a trained medical doctor who advocates legalising
soft drugs like cannabis or marijuana, admitted last week in a newspaper
interview that she had smoked marijuana.

The admission caused an outcry among rightwingers, with politician
Philippe de Villiers demanding that she resign.

Former interior minister JeanLouis Debre, the floor leader of Chirac's
RPR party in the National Assembly, said Voynet was irresponsible and
her comments were ``worrying and shocking.''

He also took Socialist Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou to task for
saying in a television interview that ``smoking a joint is no tragedy,
but it can develop into addiction if it becomes a regular habit.''

Debre said Guigou and Voynet were ``nostalgic of the May 1968 students
riots (and) have obviously forgotten that they are ministers of the
Republic.''

``Mr Debre should eat more chocolate,'' Voynet said. Guigou denied she
favoured decriminalising soft drugs and said she had called for young
people to be more clearly warned that drugs like ecstasy, heroin and
cocaine caused rapid addiction.

Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin acknowledged during this year's
parliamentary election campaign that he had twice smoked hashish in his
life and wanted to decriminalise the drug if his party won the
elections.

18:53 092397