Minister stopping short, interrupted by a French beast (6)
I believe the answer is:
vicuna
'beast' is the definition.
(type of animal)
'minister stopping short interrupted by a french' is the wordplay.
'minister' becomes 'vicar' (a religious minister).
'stopping short' means to remove the last letter.
'interrupted by' is an insertion indicator.
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'vicar' with its last letter taken off is 'vica'.
'vica' placed around 'un' is 'VICUNA'.
(Other definitions for vicuna that I've seen before include "woollen fabric" , "fine wool cloth" , "Wild relative of llama" , "Small wildl cud-chewing Andean animal with soft wool" .)