The Huffington Post Media Group (which also owns TechCrunch) has teamed up with newspaper, magazine and website publisher Le Monde and Les Nouvelles Editions Indépendantes (LNEI) to launch ‘Le Huffington Post’, a French edition of the news and opinion portal. The new joint venture is currently recruiting editors to prepare for a launch before the end of 2011.

Each of the three aforementioned partners will be shareholders in Le Huffington Post.

The French site will combine local editorial resources of Le Monde, one of France’s leading dailies, with The HuffPo’s typical combination of reporting, aggregation and discussion services. LNEI will also contribute original editorial content through its network of journalists and bloggers.

M Publicite, also part of The Le Monde group, will partner on the site’s advertising.

Huffington Post Canada launched in May, while the site landed in the UK last July.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like they haven’t yet secured either LeHuffingtonPost.com or LeHuffingtonPost.fr. Not a great start.