Sarkozy looks to reform state with new French govt

PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy spent the weekend in a royal hunting lodge, putting together a broad-based government team that will underscore his determination to reform the state.

Looking to cut public sector spending, Sarkozy has said he will appoint 15 ministers, half the present number, and in another departure promises that at least seven will be women.

Sarkozy, who takes office on Wednesday following his comprehensive election victory on May 6, also wants to offer posts to opposition leftists to show his willingness to overcome political divisions and draw on the best talent available.

This means that some of his closest aides risk being excluded from the slimline cabinet, while some ministries are set to be swallowed whole in the expected shake-up.

''It is true that this is very difficult, but there is one major advantage -- the composition of the government could also be the occasion for a reform of the state,'' said former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

''I can confirm that it will in all probability be a government which is open and a government which unifies,'' he told France Inter radio today.

Raffarin was one of a number of senior politicians to visit Sarkozy on Saturday at the hunting lodge, which is traditionally the prime minister's country retreat and backs onto the grounds of the Versailles palace outside Paris.

Another visitor to the country estate was Francois Fillon, who is widely tipped to be the next prime minister and is seen as a safe pair of hands after he successfully enacted a contested pension reform in 2003.

SURPRISES One of the biggest surprises could come in foreign affairs, with Sarkozy contacting former Socialist foreign minister Hubert Vedrine over the job, according to political sources.

The highly-respected Vedrine, who led French diplomacy during the 1999 Kosovo crisis, has not yet given his response, but Socialist party leader Francois Hollande warned his troops on Saturday to spurn Sarkozy's advances.

''When one is faithful to what one does, to those one has served, to what one believes in, one has to be coherent,'' said Hollande, who is struggling to maintain unity in his party after its third consecutive presidential defeat.

Another Socialist approached by Sarkozy, former education minister Claude Allegre, declined to become a minister but said he would help reform universities and heaped praise on the new leader, often attacked by the left as a dangerous authoritarian.

''He is charismatic, and what's more, he is very nice,'' Allegre told Le Parisien newspaper today.

Political sources said the top job in the government - a new post to oversee economic strategy - could go to Labour Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, a popular politician who is not in Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement party.

Former conservative prime minister Alain Juppe, for long a close ally of outgoing President Jacques Chirac, was also in line for a cabinet job, one source said.

Amongst the women likely to get the nod were Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, Trade Minister Christine Lagarde and Sarkozy's campaign spokeswoman, Rachida Dati.

The shake-up means some ministries, such as culture, could be absorbed into other departments -- a change that if confirmed would provoke howls of protest in arts-obsessed France.

The full government list is expected to be released before the end of the week.

Reuters DS GC1723