BEIRUT: The French Embassy denied Friday a report in a Lebanese newspaper that President Nicholas Sarkozy told the Maronite patriarch that Lebanese and Syrian Christians should move to the European Union as they are no longer welcome in the Levant.

Ad-Diyar newspaper reported Friday the French president told the Patriarch Beshara Rai during a meeting earlier this month that there is no room for Christians in the Levant and that the best solution would be for them to move to the European Union, citing a member of the patriarch’s delegation.

The paper quoted the president as saying: “Given that there are 1.3 million Christians in Lebanon and 1.5 million in Syria, why don’t Christians move to Europe, since Europe has absorbed 2 million Christian immigrants from Iraq?”

According to the newspaper the patriarch was shocked by the president’s position, and his subsequent statements following the meeting were taken “contrary” to what Sarkozy had said.

In statements made during his meeting to France Rai warned that the uprising in Syria could threaten the Christian presence in the country, and urged the international community to give Syrian President Bashar Assad time to implement reforms.

The French Embassy in Lebanon denied the report Friday, and said Christians were an “essential component” of the region.

“Following the visit of the Maronite Patriarch in France, some Lebanese newspapers attributed to the French president words that were never said,” said the statement.

“France is committed to the presence of Christians in Lebanon, as well as in Syria and throughout the region of the near and Middle East,” it said, adding that Christians have a “vital role to play in the democratization process that is under way in the region.”

Earlier this year the French president said a “religious cleansing” was taking place of Christians in the Middle East, following a series of attacks on Christian Coptic churches in Egypt and Iraq, and referred to the dead as "martyrs of the freedom of conscience."