President Chirac defends unpopular French PM

PARIS - French President Jacques Chirac stood by beleaguered Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin today, saying his government was producing good results despite a string of recent setbacks and controversies.

"I don't see why I should change a government today that has perfectly fulfilled its mission," he told France 2 television, giving a rare interview in an effort to calm the political turbulence less than a year before presidential elections.

Chirac has faced widespread calls from members of his own UMP party to remove Villepin, whose impulsive, impassioned style has sparked a series of fierce rows, pushing his popularity rating to near record lows.

But Chirac said Villepin should be judged solely on his record, adding that his government was cutting unemployment, reviving the economy and enacting important reforms.

"I am not here to give marks to one person or another. What I say is we have a prime minister who is totally dedicated to his job (and carries it out) with determination and dynamism."

In the months ahead, he said he wanted to see his conservative administration tackle justice reform, enact new measures to reduce juvenile crime and help youth employment.

Chirac said it would be up to the French people to decide the fate of the government at elections set for 2007, indicating that Villepin would stay on until the end of the legislature.

The president pulled the plug on his previous government in May 2005 when the French people handed it a stunning rebuke, voting in a referendum to reject a European Union Constitution.

Under Villepin, the unemployment rate has fallen from a five-year high of 10.2 per cent in May 2005 to 9.3 per cent in April, while economic growth rose in the first quarter to 0.5 per cent against 0.3 per cent in the final three months of last year.

But despite the economic achievements, Villepin's political star has waned following widespread rioting in the suburbs, a failed bid to loosen up employment laws and accusations he tried to smear his own interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Last week, Villepin triggered a fresh political storm when he denounced the opposition leader as a coward.

He was also forced to postpone his plans to merge French gas distributor Gaz de France and utility Suez because of opposition from UMP parliamentarians.

But an upbeat Chirac said the project, aimed at heading off an Italian takeover of Suez, was still on track.

"It will be adopted during an extraordinary session at the beginning of September simply because it's a project we have to do," he said in the live interview from his Elysee Palace.

Chirac, 73, won a second successive term as president in 2002, but his health has declined in recent months and he is widely expected to retire when his mandate expires in 2007.

But when asked about his political future, Chirac said he would only announce a decision next year.

"This is a question that one poses ... You should know in the first quarter (of 2007) when I'll have taken a decision and decided to announce it," he said.

- REUTERS