France’s top court ruled on Friday it was possible to strip the nationality of a Franco-Moroccan man naturalized as French who was convicted on terrorism charges.

France's top court ruled on Friday it was possible to strip the nationality of a Franco-Moroccan man naturalized as French who was convicted on terrorism charges, paving the way for more dual nationality gunmen to lose their passports, the World Bulletin news website reported.

Ahmed Sahnouni el-Yaacoubi, naturalized in 2003, had appealed to the Constitutional Court to reverse a decision to strip him of his nationality when he was convicted in 2013 for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts.

While Britain last year unveiled powers to strip militants of their passports temporarily, France has so far stopped short of using the measure systematically even though hundreds of fighters are joining terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.

The move comes after President Francois Hollande's Socialist government unveiled a raft of new security measures weeks after two attacks in Paris by militants which killed 17 people and the three attackers.

"We should not, in any case, deprive ourselves of lawful means to ensure our values are respected," Prime Minister Manuel Valls told journalists near Paris.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement: "the government will continue to take the decision to strip (nationality) whenever legal conditions are appropriate."

The French Civil law code dictates that a naturalized person can be stripped of their French passport if convicted on terrorism charges, the measure has only been used on eight occasions since 1998, according to a lawmaker.