Qatar Says Investments in France not Politically Motivated

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani said Monday that the gas-rich Gulf state had no political motivations behind its business investments in France.

"Qatar is not a country with great political ambitions ... and it wants no political role from its investments in France," Sheikh Hamad said at a press conference in Doha.

"We don't do anything without coordinating with the French side," he added.

France has proved attractive to Qatari investors who have bought Paris Saint-Germain football club and acquired three percent of energy giant Total as well as stakes in building firm Vinci and in media group Lagardere.

Qatar had postponed launching a fund for entrepreneurs from France's deprived suburbs until after the presidential election last May to prevent it becoming a political football. The project remains frozen.

Losing far-right candidate Marine Le Pen attacked Qatar for investing in what she said were mainly Muslim areas of French cities and said unnamed foreign countries wanted to develop Islamic fundamentalism in France.