Frances Sarkozy Vows 2-yr Reform Burst If Elected

Frances Nicolas Sarkozy says he will carry out all his major reforms in his first two years in power if elected in May.

France's Nicolas Sarkozy says he will carry out all his major reforms in his first two years in power if elected in May, including streamlining the government into 15 superministries.

A summer session of parliament would push through tax cuts on income earned through overtime, incentives for home buyers and tougher sentences for repeat offenders, Sarkozy told the Figaro Magazine in an interview released on Thursday.

"In two years we will have to have carried out all the reforms," Sarkozy, a rightwinger who has led in opinion polls since mid-January, told the weekly magazine.

"Two years to put the reforms into practice, and also to identify and select the people who are going to carry them out," Sarkozy said.

A law imposing a minimum service in the public sector, notably in transport, would be passed before the end of the year, said Sarkozy. He also repeated his pledge to bring down unemployment to 5 percent in five years.

Unemployment is currently at a 24-year low of 8.4 percent, according to state statistics body INSEE, although there are doubts about the reliability of that figure.

The summer session of parliament, to be called after June parliamentary polls, would also pass a measure allowing unemployed people to refuse no more than two job offers for which they are qualified in order to retain state benefits.

In future everyone would have to have some form of activity, for example training, to qualify for state benefits, he said.

Sarkozy repeated his pledge to have an equal number of men and women in his government. And, while refusing to be drawn on who would be his prime minister, he acknowledged his campaign director Francois Fillon would be qualified for the job.

His government shakeup would include the creation of a Public Accounts Ministry to supervise spending by the state, local government and France's prized but expensive social security system. A separate Economic Strategy Ministry would prepare France for the challenges posed by globalisation.

The government currently has 30 ministers, not including the prime minister. Sarkozy again courted voters tempted by veteran far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, saying they should not be made to feel guilty as they had turned to the National Front out of despair rather than hope.

Brice Hortefeux, a close Sarkozy ally, floated the idea of a limited dose of proportional representation in elections to the National Assembly in 2012 in a separate interview in the Le Figaro daily.

Proportional representation is a key demand of centrist candidate Francois Bayrou but could also allow the National Front to regain seats in the lower house of parliament.