French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal has denied interfering in Canada’s affairs, after she voiced apparent sympathy for Quebec’s freedom.

Royal told reporters recently she supported “sovereignty and liberty” for Quebec, prompting a rebuke from Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She now says she meant that “the people who vote are sovereign and free”. Ties between mainly French-speaking Quebec and the rest of Canada are a major domestic political issue.

Royal’s reported comments, which made headline news in Canada, followed a brief meeting in Paris with the leader of the pro-independence Parti Quebecois, Andre Boisclair. She said she and Boisclair had common positions that included “the sovereignty and freedom of Quebec”. Reacting to Royal’s comments, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: “Experience teaches that it is highly inappropriate for a foreign leader to interfere in the democratic affairs of another country.”

It is not the first time that Ms Royal has been criticised for what opponents say are diplomatic gaffes.

On a visit to Lebanon in December, she was accused of condo-ning remarks by a Hezbollah leader who compared Israel’s former occupation of Lebanon to that of the Nazis in France. In Beijing, she said France’s justice system could learn lessons from China, a country which has long been accused of abusing human rights.

Critics say that Royal, who is largely untested in diplomatic affairs, tailors her remarks to please whomever she is speaking to.

Opinion polls put her behind her conservative opponent Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s Interior Minister.