PARIS — All that gourmet food, coupled with those slim waistlines, has long stood as one of the wonders of France. No more.

The French are reportedly getting fatter, and on Tuesday, a Socialist deputy filed a proposal to attack the problem through legislation.

Jean-Marie Le Guen said he wants to make the fight against fatness a "veritable goal of public health."

According to Le Guen, 11-12 per cent of young children are obese. He said the figure was expected to rise to 20 per cent within two decades.

His proposal filed with the National Assembly, the lower house of the French legislature, proposes "readable and comprehensible" consumer information on sugar, fatty acid and salt content of food and drinks.

The proposal seeks to impose sanctions for producers of products that go against public health rules as well as for those who advertise them.

The measure specifically seeks a penalty for advertisements amounting to five per cent of the cost of the publicity for offending sugar drinks and products.

It calls for a half-hour of daily physical exercise in schools and for each child to be weighed by a school doctor every year.

Le Guen did not say when his proposal might be taken up by the assembly, but stressed that the problem would be "one of the important themes" of the presidential campaign in 2007 for the Socialists, the leading opposition party.