Let mu (n) = 1/n Sigma (n)(i=1) deltax(i) denote the empirical measure asso
ciated with a sequence (X-i)(i greater than or equal to1) of r.v. i.i.d. ac
cording to a probability measure mu on a Polish space S. We give a necessar
y and sufficient condition for the a.s. existence of N such that. for all n
greater than or equal to N, there is a probability measure v(n) which mini
mizes the relative entropy with respect to mu (n) under the constraint inte
gral (S) f dv(n) = 0, where f : S --> R-d. Under this condition, we prove t
hat a.s. v(n) converges weakly to the generalized solution v of the minimiz
ation of the entropy with respect to mu constrained problem. (C) 2001 Acade
mie des sciences/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.