France is to recruit thousands of extra police, spies and investigators to boost national security and intelligence, Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced yesterday, two weeks after 17 people were killed by Islamist militants.

Warning the threat remained high after the most deadly Islamist attack on French soil, Valls said the state would hire 2,680 in the police, justice, intelligence and defence sectors by 2018 for anti-jihadist work, surveillance and security.

Several thousand planned job cuts in the army are to be cancelled and dozens of extra Muslim chaplains deployed to work with potential militants in France’s overcrowded jails.

“The fight against terrorism, jihadism and radical Islam will be a long haul,” Valls told a news conference after the measures were agreed by President François Hollande’s Cabinet.

“The first requirement is that we further reinforce the human and material assets of our intelligence services,” said Valls, who after the January 7-9 attacks conceded there could have been “shortfalls” in monitoring and justice arrangements. France is struggling to monitor an estimated 1,200 radical Islamists and some 200 people who have returned from fighting with militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

Valls said a possible penalty would be debated under which offenders would be stripped of certain civic rights such as voting, holding office or working for the state.

Despite commitments worth a total €425 million in extra spending, Valls said France would respect public finance commitments made to its EU partners.

Hollande said in a separate statement he would maintain 7,500 military jobs due to be cut in the defence sector. Total armed forces personnel in France was 278,000 at the end of 2013.

The three gunmen who aattacked satirical journal Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket were killed by security forces.

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