JERUSALEM (EJP)--- French President Nicolas Sarkozy's good relations with the Jewish community and Israel could result in a drop of the immigration to Israel from France in 2007.

A Jewish Agency official in France was recently quoted as saying by Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot that 2,800 immigrants are due to arrive this year in Israel which is less than the 3,000 initially forecast.

The Jewish Agency is the official semi-governmental body responsible for Jewish immigration to Israel.

“We are registering a certain drop of immigration,” David Roch, head of the Jewish Agency’s Paris office, told the newspaper.

“Some explain it by the ‘Sarkozy effect’ which might incite eventual candidates to stay in France,” he added.

A spokesman for the Jewish Agency said that it is too early to forecast the total number of immigrants in 2007 but it should be around 3,000, the highest number in more than three decade, ” Yarden Vatikai said.

In 1971, 3,281 French Jews came to Israel.

A slowdown is possible this year because French Jews have an increased feeling of security, the spokesperson added.

Sarkozy was elected president in May.

Since the State of Israel was created in 1948, some 80,000 Jews from France have immigrated to Israel.