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French prime minister says new policies ahead

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday his government intends to lead France into the 21st century with a new approach to democracy and new policies to boost competitiveness and social harmony.

"We must rewrite our political, social and cultural contract," Fillon told lawmakers, outlining his government's general policies -- marked by vast ambitions in the economic realm, including lowering unemployment from 8.1 percent now to 5 percent -- for the next five years.

"There is a cancer at the heart of the national crisis -- mass unemployment," Fillon said, adding that it not only cuts production and breaks national morale but also blocks integration and feeds extremism.

Fillon, chosen after President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected in May to succeed Jacques Chirac, said no government has managed to stop what he called "the slow spiral downward" that has put France 16th in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's list in terms of riches by inhabitant.

Past governments have failed to reverse the trend because they did not dare "to break this vicious circle of working less and less and becoming more and more indebted," Fillon said.

He promised to increase growth, apparently aiming to raise it from 2 percent to 3 percent a year.

In a vote of confidence, lawmakers of the government's conservative majority easily carried the day, approving Fillon and his program 321 to 224. The right's traditional leftist rivals voted against him.

Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande, responding to the policy speech, said that ``serious risks lie before us,'' asking that the government give an account of its work every six months.

Hollande took a swipe at Sarkozy who has said he wants to be the "president who governs," calling him the "omnipresident ... omnipotent, omniscient" and asking Fillon: "What exactly is your job?"

The powerful CGT union criticized the government policies as "a dressing for decisions already made."
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