PARIS (AFP) - A judge on Friday charged a recent convert to Islam who stabbed a French soldier last weekend with "attempted murder linked to a terrorist enterprise", a judicial source said.

The 22-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after the stabbing of a soldier at the busy Paris commercial complex and transport hub of La Defense, which came on the heels of the brutal murder of a soldier in London.

The man, named only as Alexandre D., admitted after his arrest that he stabbed Private First Class Cedric Cordiez in the neck. The soldier has since been discharged from hospital.

Video footage from the shopping centre showed him buying two knives an hour prior to the attack last Saturday, and praying eight minutes before the stabbing.