The Prime Minister, who is visiting the country, hailed it as central to unifying East and West and reducing international security fears.

Speaking in the capital, Ankara, Mr Cameron said Turkey’s unique position should see it play a key role in shaping the future of Afghanistan and helping broker peace in the Middle East.

And he called on the country to use its relationship with Iran to raise international concerns over its nuclear ambitions.

Mr Cameron will later cement his commitment by signing a “strategic partnership” with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The agreement deepens trade, defence and cultural ties between the countries.

Mr Cameron’s support for Turkey’s EU bid defies many voices within his own party, as well as French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel, all of whom oppose its claims to full membership.

But the Prime Minister pointed to its support for the Nato military alliance as proof “Turkey deserves its place at the top table of European politics”.

“I believe it’s just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent,” he said.

“Together, I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.”

Mr Cameron’s trip is only his fifth overseas bilateral visit since taking office, underlining the importance the Government attaches to Turkey.

The country is the world’s 16th largest economy and is expected to be the third fastest-growing, after China and India, by 2017.

The Prime Minister will later head to the sub-continent in a bid to build a “special relationship” with the Indian government.

He will be joined by several other ministers, including Foreign Secretary William Hague and Chancellor George Osborne, for what is billed as a major trade and investment drive.

The French Football Federation took the decision on the advice of new coach Laurent Blanc.

The country’s World Cup campaign lurched from one disaster to another in South Africa.

On the pitch, the 2006 losing finalists failed to progress from the group stages after being unable to register a single win.

Off the pitch, striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home in shame after insulting the then-coach Raymond Domenech during a row at half-time during a game.

The incident provoked a strong response from Anelka’s team-mates who boycotted a training session in protest just before their final game against South Africa in Group A.

Former French international Blanc replaced Domenech after the World Cup and was expected to make sweeping changes to the squad.

He will announce his first squad on August 5, ahead of the match in Oslo six days later.

As well as Anelka, those who will miss out include Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, Arsenal trio Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy and Abou Diaby, Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery and Chelsea’s Florent Malouda.

Police deployed in a suburb of the French city of Grenoble to halt a wave of rioting said Sunday they had come under gunfire for a second night running.

Four men were arrested in a dawn raid in the working class neighbourhood of La Villeneuve for allegedly shooting at security forces.

Police had already made at least seven arrests overnight for carrying weapons. No one was reported hurt.

The riots broke out after a 27-year-old man was shot dead by police on Thursday when he allegedly robbed a casino in the south-eastern city nestled in the French Alps.

Youths torched between 50 and 60 cars as well as construction equipment and two shops.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux visited the scene on Saturday and pledged to quickly restore order to La Villeneuve.

“There’s no future for hoodlums and delinquents because in the end the public authority always wins,” he said.

In October 2005, weeks of rioting broke out in deprived suburban districts across France, sparked by the death of two youths who were electrocuted when they entered an electricity installation as they ran away from police.

The 76-year-old general has denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s, dismissing the accusations that he laundered drug money in France as a scheme concocted by the United States.

“I call on God’s divine providence to give wisdom to you and all the judges,” Noriega said, punching the air as he addressed the presiding judge after the prosecutors spoke.

Announcing the sentencing demand, state prosecutor Michel Maes told the Paris court: “We should retain the image of a perfectly structured organisation in the hands of one man, and in the interests of one man, Manuel Noriega.

“This system was conceived to launder drug money for Mr Noriega’s profit.”

Maes also demanded that all of Noriega’s money in French accounts be seized.

Noriega’s lawyers asked for him to be acquitted, saying the charges against him hinge on dodgy testimony from ex-drug traffickers who were paid and given protection by US authorities.

One of the lawyers, Yves Leberquier, urged the court to “go beyond the image that the United States present of Noriega” as a “dictator and cocaine-trafficker.”

He said a 10-tear term would amount to a life sentence for the frail general, who suffers from partial paralysis and high blood pressure, meaning “the death in jail of an ill man of 76.”

A French court had already sentenced Noriega to 10 years in jail at a trial in his absence in 1999, but the general was allowed to appeal that ruling in person after his extradition. A verdict is expected as early as next month.

Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, has already spent 20 years in a Miami prison for drug trafficking and money laundering and for years fought against being extradited to France.

He was finally extradited there on April 26 to answer charges of laundering the equivalent of 2.3 million euros (2.8 million dollars) from the Medellin drug cartel through French banks in the late 1980s.

Once a close US ally, Noriega testified that Washington turned against him in the 1980s when he refused to allow Panama to become a staging ground for operations against leftists across Central America.

The pock-marked general known as “Pineapple Face” was arrested by US troops that invaded Panama in December 1989.

French prosecutors say that drug money funnelled in the late 1980s was used by Noriega’s wife and a shell company to buy three luxury apartments in Paris.

Much of the hearing on Tuesday was devoted to questions about Noriega’s bank accounts and his ties to the now-defunct BCCI bank, which allegedly handled his financial affairs.

Asked about the source of millions in cash deposits at the bank, Noriega said they came from successful business ventures including duty-free sales at Panama airport and life insurance policies.

The one-time strongman was a key asset for the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1980s but fell out with Washington when he was widely considered to have turned his strategically important country into a drugs hub.

At the other end of the scale, Karembeu recalls an episode that brought France’s golden generation together while preparing for a must-win qualifier in Romania ahead of EURO 96. “We knew they’d have massive support behind them,” said the New Caledonian-born midfielder. “So the whole squad swore we’d give everything, body and soul, for the team, and that we’d surpass ourselves for the France shirt and the country as a whole. It was that same notion of giving our all that guided our generation.” France went on to triumph 3-1 in Bucharest.

Their present-day counterparts have so far failed to surpass themselves on South African soil, and with one game left in their section they cannot afford to wait any longer. “The players must put more effort into what they’re doing,” explained Wiltord. “They need a defining match in which everything goes perfectly. They have to find a way to set this game alight.”

“France just need to prove their superiority,” added Zidane. “The players have to show that it’s not for nothing that they’re at the biggest clubs in Europe. We’ve spoken about everything except football in the last few days. I’m certain the players will have that on their minds during the match. They know that if they win, we’ll be able to turn the page.”

In remarks published on Sunday in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Trichet said that by compromising the European Union’s Stability and Growth Pact in 2004, the powerhouses had allowed budgetary discipline to slacken.

“I wish the German public had reacted with the same indignation to the breach of the Stability Pact in 2004 that they showed toward our decision to buy government bonds,” he said, referring to the ECB’s unprecedented move in May aimed at halting speculative attacks and restoring market stability.

He noted that both Berlin and Paris had failed to uphold the standards they had fought to impose on the EU by forcing through a dilution of Stability Pact’s strict penalties for excessive public deficits.

“The governments were extremely unreliable, over the course of months and years,” Trichet said.

The ECB president ruled out a default by debt-wracked eurozone countriesGreece, Spain or Portugal.

“We will not allow that,” he said.

Trichet also had sharp words for banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis touched off by the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which sent the global financial system into turmoil.

He said still “excessive” salaries and bonus packages based on short-term profits with little foundation in the real economy were unsustainable.

“That has nothing to do with our fundamental democratic values,” he said.

EU leaders agreed on Thursday on to impose a tax on banks that could fund future bailouts in the wake of Europe’s debt crisis, and to “promote” the option of a global tax on financial transactions when G20 leaders gather for a summit inToronto, Canada next weekend.

Anelka told Domenech to “go screw yourself, dirty son of a whore” in the dressing room at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane after the coach took issue with his first-half performance, the report said.

The tirade was sparked after Domenech told Anelka to stop straying out of position in a match where the striker was one of France’s worst performers, L’Equipe said, without citing its source.

When Anelka took issue with the criticism, Domenech threatened to substitute him, and the player made his foul-mouthed outburst.

Domenech’s response was immediate. “OK. You’re coming off,” the coach said, according to the report, and he replaced him with Andre-Pierre Gignac for the second half.

But Mexico secured victory with two second-half goals, leaving France – the beaten finalists four years ago – staring elimination in the face.

If their Group A rivals Uruguay and Mexico draw in their match on Tuesday, the French are out of the tournament, regardless of their own result against host nation South Africa.

The reported bust-up comes amid a dreadful World Cup for France, whose training camp has reportedly been riven with disputes between Domenech and his players.

U.S. President Barack Obama released a letter to his Group of 20 colleagues that zeroed in on prickly policy differences over China’s currency stance and debt-wary Europe’s rush to rein in bulging budget deficits.

World leaders gathering in Toronto next week are struggling to maintain the crisis-forged unity that has been credited with preventing another Great Depression. Now that the global economy is on the mend, divisions are beginning to show.

Cui Tiankai, a vice foreign minister who is China’s official in charge of preparing for the G20 summit, said the yuan was “China’s currency, so I don’t think it is an issue that should be discussed internationally.”

China has kept the yuan, also known as the renminbi, steady around 6.83 per dollar for almost two years to help its exporters ride out the global financial crisis. Many Western economists believe it is undervalued by as much as 40 percent.

Obama, under pressure from some lawmakers who accuse his administration of soft-pedalling on China, said free-floating currencies were “essential” to global economic activity, a thinly veiled reference to the yuan.

His administration has stopped short of accusing China of manipulating its currency to give it a trade advantage, something that some members of Congress have urged.

The Treasury Department delayed its regular currency report to Congress, which was due in April, angering some lawmakers who think the administration is dragging its feet.

DON’T PULL THE PLUG NOW

Obama also directed stern words at Europe. In a letter to G20 colleagues dated June 16, he said the highest priority at next week’s meeting must be to safeguard the recovery and not succumb too soon to demands that government debt shrink.

“We worked exceptionally hard to restore growth; we cannot let it falter or lose strength now,” he said.

The United States has urged Germany in particular not to pull the plug on government spending too soon for fear that doing so will derail the still-fragile economic recovery.

Berlin thinks shoring up public finances is an immediate priority, underscored by Greece’s debt troubles and growing worries that other small, heavily indebted European countries could face a similar fate.

Obama said it was critical that the timing and pace of the fiscal pullback “suit the needs of the global economy” and not just domestic demands.

The United States and China appeared to find some common ground on this issue. Zhu Guangyao, China’s vice finance minister, said countries with serious budget deficits should accelerate fiscal consolidation but in a manner that is “growth-friendly.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has used the same phrase in recent weeks to describe the U.S. position on debt.

Obama said countries should be prepared to respond quickly and forcefully to avert another slowdown if the recovery fades. That might not be well received at home, where Obama has faced resistance from Congress over adding to an already swollen government debt burden.

Thousands were expected to gather on the streets of Paris to celebrate the 70th anniversary of General de Gaulle’s wartime call-to-arms.

But the chances of French football fans filling the capital’s streets – as they did after 1998′s famous World Cup final victory over Brazil – remain remote with the 2010 team on the brink of an early tournament exit.

French captain Patrice Evra admitted he was “disgusted” after the side’s 2-0 defeat to Mexico, mirroring the outrage from the country’s press.

France Soir declared Les Bleus “at the bottom of a hole” while Le Figaro attacked the “distressful sterility of the French attack”.

Manager Raymond Domenech had been “suffocated by his ego, only surpassed by those of his players”, according to the national sports daily L’Equipe.

“We mock him for his selection, in overlooking Thierry Henry, the record scorer in French football history,” it continued.

“We laugh at his fellow senior players, like Franck Ribery, William Gallas or Nicolas Anelka, who believe themselves to be superior.

“We laugh at their supreme arrogance coupled by their equal measures of ignorance.”

The much-maligned Domenech had told L’Equipe: “When France loses a match, we are always disappointed.”

But he said he found the fact the team’s progress in the tournament was now out of their hands “even more discouraging”.

A draw between their conquerers Mexico in their final match with Uruguay on Tuesday will dump the French – losing finalists only four years ago – out of the World Cup.

If either Mexico or Uruguay claims victory, Les Bleus will still require a hefty win against hosts South Africa, who are themselves fighting to stay in the competition.

“France knew their team was a bit rubbish but not many people thought it would be as bad as this,” said Sky News Europe correspondent Alex Rossi, observing the mood in Paris.

“Their country’s World Cup campaign was already riddled with existential doubt after a 0-0 draw against Uruguay but there was still hope. That, though, is in short supply now.”

One distressed supporter, Manu Chavane, told Sky News he was shocked at the failure of the squad, which boasts some of Europe’s highest-rated players.

“It was one of the worst nights of my life,” he said. “I thought we couldn’t fail given the group we are in.

“I watched it in a bar and everybody in there was in tears after the match. It is humiliating. We should be the best team in the world.”

The players will now need to summon the spirit of de Gaulle to overturn the odds and progress, but even skipper Evra bluntly admitted: “I don’t believe in miracles.”

Mr Sarkozy was the first foreign leader to be invited on an official visit to Britain by David Cameron when he became Prime Minister last month.

The French president is being accompanied by his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

On June 18, 1940, as the French government prepared to sign an armistice with the Nazis, General Charles de Gaulle broadcast on the BBC to France.

He called on French citizens to continue the war against Germany and appealed to all troops to rally under his command in London.

“The flame of French Resistance must not and will not be extinguished,” he said.

Mr Cameron said: “The importance of General de Gaulle’s words has not been dimmed by history.

“It was a call for freedom; a call to fight tyranny; a call that inspired countless acts of bravery.

“Today we honour and remember the courage of all those who fought for the cause of freedom.

“And today we celebrate the relationship between France and Britain.”

On a previous visit to Britain in March, Mr Sarkozy was forced to laugh off rumours about his marriage amid claims circulating on the internet that they were both having affairs.

Although the rumours were largely ignored by the French media, Mr Sarkozy was questioned about them by British journalists, prompting him to say: “I love Britain – don’t make me bite back those words.”

Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni-Sarkozy made a state visit to Britain in March 2008.