The French government has signalled that it is dropping a plan for a tax on domestic carbon dioxide emissions.
Jean-Francois Cope, parliamentary leader of the governing UMP party, was quoted as saying the tax "would be Europe-wide or not (exist) at all". Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament that the government should focus on policies that increased France's economic competitiveness. France had been rethinking the tax after a court rejected it last year.