France faces serious disruption as a nationwide strike begins to fight proposals to raise the retirement¹ age.

法国民众就反对提高退休年龄的提议举行了一场全国性的大罢工，法国将面临严重的破坏。

The 24-hour-strike is set to hit public transport, banks, air traffic and the postal² service.

Unions said they expected hundreds of thousands of private and public sector³（国营部门经济） workers to take to the streets to protest about the plans.

The strike date coincides with the presentation of the pension reform bill to parliament.

Some secondary school teachers went on strike on Monday, protesting against plans to cut 7,000 jobs in education.

They are expected to be joined by rail workers on Monday evening.

Only up to half of all inter-city and local train services are expected to run on Tuesday, state railway company SNCF said. But Eurostar trains between France and London should operate normally.

France's civil aviation（民用航空） authority said it had asked all airlines to cut Paris flights by a quarter.

Air France said it would cut short- and medium-haul flights into and out of Paris by up to 90%, with long-haul flights remaining largely unaffected.

'Strong turnout'

France's largest union, the CGT, said it expected the turnout for the protest marches across the country to be stronger than during the strikes in June, when more than 800,000 people took part in demonstrations⁴.

"We may have an exceptional day and, if it is exceptional, we will perhaps be at a turning point," CGT leader Bernard Thibault said.

However, President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will not back down from（撤回，放弃） his plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. Under the proposed law, the age for full pension payments would be lifted from 65 to 67.

The bill is one of the key reforms the president hopes to push through during the last two years of his mandate⁵（授权，命令） .

It will be presented to the National Assembly by Labour Minister Eric Woerth.

Senate debates

The French Senate will debate the ban on the full face veil approved by the lower house in July.

Senators are also expected to debate a controversial new security law.

It would see recent immigrants stripped of French citizenship⁶ if they committed serious crimes such as killing⁷ a police officer.

The law would also allow electronic tagging for foreign criminals facing deportation⁸.

The proposals and the recent deportation of about 1,000 Roma (Gypsies) have lead to protests across the country.

The European Parliament is scheduled to debate the situation of the Roma minority in Europe on Tuesday.