Sarkozy to Netanyahu:Lieberman must go

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged the Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to dispose of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a report says.

During Netanyahu's meeting with the French president in Paris last Wednesday, Nicholas Sarkozy advised the Israeli premier to appoint opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni in place of hardliner Lieberman, according to a report circulated by Israel's Channel Two on Monday.

"With her and (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak you can make history. I have always accepted Israeli foreign ministers, and I loved to have Tzipi Livni here at the Elysee, but with (Lieberman) I can't," Sarkozy was quoted as saying.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement censured Sarkozy's remarks and described them as "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs."

Meanwhile, the Member of Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Ahmed Tibi welcomed Sarkozy's comments, saying that he hopes "the international community has started to absorb the danger of the fascism being taught by Lieberman."

Lieberman -- a West Bank settler who is seen as an ultra nationalist -- was dubbed 'racist' by his critics after making harsh statements about Arab Israeli lawmakers and refusing to recognize Palestine's statehood