Heavy security has been put on prepared for the visit -- the first by an Israeli head of state since 1988 -- which will begin with Katzav being received by President Jacques Chirac and attending a ceremony on the Champs-Elysees.
The famous Paris avenue has been decked out with blue-and-white Israeli flags fluttering next to the red-white-and-blue ones of France.
In an interview with Sunday's Le Monday newspaper, Katzav confirmed that the persistent view from Israel that France was experiencing a rise in anti-Semitism would be foremost in his mind when he met French officials.
"We have to speak about" the issue, he said. "Anti-Semitism is present in France, but I know that the president and the government are fighting it."
Israel has contended that assaults on members of France's 600,000-strong Jewish community -- the largest in western Europe -- doubled in France last year even as the number of incidents worldwide fell from 1,979 to 983, compared to 2002.
But French officials, who have repeatedly vowed to crack down on such incidents, have brandished interior ministry figures showing that anti-Semitic attacks in the country dropped by nearly 40 percent to 125.
Chirac, in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth published last Friday, said he was "surprised" by the Israeli claims, saying they ran contrary to reality.
"I am told that in the streets of Tel Aviv, in newspaper cartoons and in conversations, the image of France as an anti-Semitic country is gradually spreading. These caricatures deeply hurt French people," he said.
"No, France is not an anti-Semitic country. But we must remain highly vigilant. With the government, we lead a tireless struggle against anti-Semitic language and acts," he said.
Israeli Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi, on a visit to Paris last month to prepare for Katzav's visit, acknowledged that the situation was changing, saying: "France is the only state in all of Europe in which people who exercise anti-Semitic activities are behind bars."
Nevertheless, other Israeli leaders continue to single out France, drawing on recent incidents such as the firebombing of a Jewish school and a school bus, and a televised skit by a popular comic dressed as an orthodox Jew and making a Nazi-style salute.
France's leading role in the international community in criticising Israel's hardline policies against Palestinians has also earned their ire.
Chirac has notably come out strongly against Israel's construction of a separation barrier in the West Bank, calling it illegal.
In the Yedioth Aharonoth interview, he said, the barrier "dispossesses thousands of Palestinians of their land" and will "trigger more frustration and anger".
Other countries, including the United States and many EU states, have also expressed fears that the wall could prove a hurdle to peace.
The Israelis say the barrier is necessary to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out, while the Palestinians say it is a land grab and smacks of apartheid.
In the Le Monde interview, Katzav, who hold a largely ceremonial post, said he believed the barrier "will be positive for both sides," though "it is not irreversible".
Israel is to boycott an International Court of Justice hearing into the barrier called by the UN General Assembly. The hearing, to take place in The Hague (news - web sites), is to start on February 23, three days after Katzav leaves France.
