LE BOURGET, France (AP) - Because of her choice to wear a Muslim hijab headscarf, Ms Samia Kaddour has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in France. Soon some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.

French President Francois Hollande says he wants a new law that could extend restrictions against wearing of prominent religious symbols in state jobs into the private sector. It comes amid a political backlash after a top court ruled that a day-care operator that gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf.

Ms Kaddour was on hand in Le Bourget, north of Paris, for the four-day Annual Meeting of Muslims of France that ends on Monday. The conference last year drew 160,000 faithful and is billed as the largest gathering of its kind in Europe.