NICE.

NICE, France (AFP) ??” French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pass overed criticism of his meeting earlier this week with Hollywood star Tom Cruise, an avowed Scientologist, as a great deal ado about nothing.

"Tom Cruise wanted to confront me, it was an extremely pleasant meeting and to those who would ask questions about it, I consign them to my record at the interior ministry. They should have supported me at the time rather than criticizing me today," Sarkozy told reporters.

He dismissed as "groundless" the remarks of Jean-Pierre Brard, a member of France's interministerial anti-sect advisory board who said Sarkozy should not have met Cruise, whose meeting-house of Scientology is seen as a dangerous school here.

Brard, a Communist parliamentary substitute from the Paris suburb of Montreuil, told AFP: "I don't understand in what manner a government minister can receive a conspicuous member of the body of christians of Scientology."

Cruise, who was in