Goodbye White House...bonjour Paris?

All smiles, but would Chirac's job tempt Clinton?

PARIS, France (CNN) -- As he prepares to leave the White House, Bill Clinton is already being given one possible job offer to mull over -- the French presidency.

Historian Patrick Weil has unveiled a little-known nationality law he says would entitle the outgoing U.S. president to stand as a candidate for the post next year.

The law, passed in 1961, enables people from former French territories to apply for immediate naturalisation, bypassing the normal five-year residency requirement for would-be French citizens.

Since Clinton's home state of Arkansas was once part of French Louisiana, he would qualify.

And as a naturalised French citizen, he could contest next year's presidential election alongside front-runners Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin.

"He can come to France and as soon as he arrives he can ask for his French citizenship," said Weil. "Not only he did not know this but most of the French people did not know it either."

However some voters have already hinted he would get their support.

"I would definitely prefer Bill Clinton as president rather than our president in office," said one woman.

Another commented: "He has been a good president for the United States, he could be a good president in France."

While many French people view the United States with suspicion, and are highly sensitive of America's perceived cultural domination, Clinton himself seems to be popular.

His treatment over the Monica Lewinsky affair appears to have won him much sympathy in France.

"What makes Clinton sympathetic to the French was not the liaison but was the way the liaison was used against him by his Republican opponents," Weil explained.

"This liaison was part of his private life and it should never have been in the public and used politically against him."

Weil, a senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, points out that Clinton would not be the first American President to be granted French citizenship.

George Washington was similarly honoured, along with 17 other famous foreigners, during the French revolution in 1792.

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French President's office

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