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The dual leadership system of France's National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) will be changed to avoid potential conflict between the president and the director-general of the kind that led to a crisis at the centre.

The present system resulted in the resignation last month of the centre's president, Bernard Meunier, and the dismissal of director-general Bernard Larrouturou.

Junior Research Minister Francois Goulard said the Government would "put an end to this anomaly that leads to deadlock in the event of disagreement", and that a decree would be introduced "in the next few months".

The new director-general of the centre is Arnold Migus, a senior CNRS researcher and director-general of the Institut d'Optique.

Dr Migus is a specialist in lasers and their application in optics, physics, chemistry and astronomy. His appointment follows that of the centre's president, nuclear physicist Catherine Brechignac, who was CNRS director-general for three years in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, examination of the research reform Bill by the National Assembly has been delayed until the end of February.