Memo To Chirac: Catholicism is free.

Middle-class French women will be offered cash incentives to have a third child amid growing concerns that professional couples are having too few children.

Although France's fertility rate of 1.9 for each couple is relatively high among European countries, family lobbyists are dismayed by a fall in the number of babies born to better-educated women.

The government will announce its proposals tomorrow when Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the father of three children, presides at a conference on family life. A big increase in allowances has been widely predicted.

France's National Union of Family Associations, which is known by its French acronym UNAF and is playing a key role in shaping policy, said the figure should be set at up to $1,250 a month for women with three children, double the present maximum, and should be set according to the woman's salary. (Thanks to The Washington Times for the heads up.)