Royal unveils 100 proposals "to make France strong"

PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, trailing in the opinion polls and struggling to kick start her gaffe-prone campaign, unveiled 100 proposals today that she said would make France a stronger, fairer place.

Termed ''the presidential pact'', the policies were drawn up following weeks of nationwide debates and concentrate primarily on social, economic and environmental issues.

The pact contained promises to boost ''small pensions'' by five percent, to re-negotiate and ''consolidate'' the 35-hour work week, to increase the minimum wage and establish military-type boot camp to deal with young offenders.

She also included controversial plans to set up ''citizen juries'' to evaluate the work of parliamentarians, give parents a greater choice over where to school their children and do more to regulate bank fees.

''Today I offer you the presidential pact. One hundred proposals for France to rediscover a shared ambition, pride and fraternity,'' Royal will tell a mass rally on Sunday, according to the text of a speech released ahead of time.

Royal won her party's nomination in November and appeared on course to become France's first woman president, but lost the political initiative to her chief rival Nicholas Sarkozy by refusing to detail her manifesto.

Instead she initiated some 6,000 ''participative debates'' around the country, to listen to voters' concerns and hear their suggestions for change. Royal says her ''listening phase'' has borne fruit and on Sunday defended her unconventional approach to campaigning.

''You can no longer bear that programmes are drawn up in the dark and forgotten as quickly as they are written,'' the text of her speech said.

RECONCILIATION Royal faces an uphill battle to regain the momentum from Interior Minister Sarkozy, who has built up a four to five percentage point lead in the polls after winning his party's nomination last month and hitting the campaign trial aggressively.

Sarkozy held his own rally today to prevent Royal from hogging the limelight, and promised to be ''the president of reconciliation'' in a move aimed at softening his hard-man image.

''No-one should feel excluded by the politics of renewal that I want to set in motion,'' he told 3,000 supporters in Paris.

The election is set for April and May, and the winner faces a tough task of trying to reform France, which has lost both economic and diplomatic weight over the past decade, while overcoming traditional resistance to change from the workforce.

President Jacques Chirac has governed since 1995 and has not yet said if he will seek an unprecedented third term in office.

However, in an interview to be aired on television today he is expected to drop his biggest hint yet that after 40 years in frontline politics, he is ready to retire.

''There is without doubt a life after politics. Until death,'' Chirac says in the interview, according to leaks in the press.

REUTERS SY MIR RAI1914