Sarkozy names slimline, cross-party government

PARIS, May 18 (Reuters) French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a broad-based cabinet today, naming popular leftist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister in a slimline government that radically reshaped the finance ministry.

Maintaining an election promise, Sarkozy appointed seven women to his 15-strong team, breaking a male stranglehold on power and halving the number of cabinet posts.

Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who was appointed yesterday, will hold their first cabinet meeting at 16.30 hrs local time, sending a clear signal that they immediately want to get to work on their reform programme.

Alain Juppe, a former prime minister, becomes the government number two heading a new super-ministry that combines the environment, sustainable development, transport and energy.

Jean-Louis Borloo, the previous labour minister, becomes France's economy chief, in charge of a revamped portfolio that he told Le Monde newspaper would include economic strategy, employment, industry, trade and tourism.

''My only mission is to cut unemployment to 5 per cent by the end of Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year mandate, as he has pledged,'' Borloo told Le Monde newspaper.

He will work alongside Eric Woerth, former treasurer of Sarkozy's ruling UMP party, who will be responsible for the state budget and all aspects of public spending -- a new post aimed at rationalising government and cutting costs.

Many of the important social reforms promised by Sarkozy, including curbing union powers and creating a simplified, single labour contract for workers, will fall to his former campaign spokesman, Xavier Bertrand in his new role as labour minister.

In a first, Sarkozy reached out to the opposition and picked three leftists for his administration -- Kouchner as foreign minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet as secretary of state for Europe and Eric Besson as secretary of state for public policy.

CENTRISTS The Socialists said Sarkozy wanted to destabilise them in the wake of their presidential election defeat, and indicated that Kouchner, the co-founder of the Nobel prize-winning charity Doctors without Borders, would be expelled from the party.

Reaching out to centrist allies, Sarkozy appointed Herve Morin as defence minister. He will replace Michele Alliot-Marie, who switches to an interior ministry that has been stripped off responsibility for immigration issues.

These have been placed in a highly controversial new ministry for immigration and national identity, which Sarkozy entrusted to his longest-standing ally, Brice Hortefeux.

One of the first tasks of the new government will be to campaign for legislative elections on June 10 and 17, which the president must win to enact his reform programme. Opinion polls have suggested that he should secure a strong majority.

Sarkozy wants his ministers to prepare a raft of laws to present to the new parliament as soon as it sits this summer.

One of the priorities will be to draw up a mini-budget to introduce promised reductions in corporate and inheritance tax.

As the government list was being read out, Sarkozy, who only took office on Wednesday, met unions at troubled European plane maker Airbus at its headquarters in Toulouse.

Airbus parent EADS was plunged into a financial crisis during the French election campaign and Sarkozy told reporters that the shareholder pact, which guarantees Franco-German parity, needed to change.

Germany has resisted repeated French attempts in recent years to seize greater control of the company, which was founded in 2000 with a merger of the two countries' top aerospace firms.

Sarkozy said he would return to Toulouse with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in July to discuss the firm's future.

REUTERS SYU VV1845