Fillon takes office as new French PM

François Fillon has been sworn in as French prime minister, vowing to implement new President Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping program of change.

During a brief ceremony, the 53-year-old Fillon, a confidante of Sarkozy's, pledged to "assure an eminent place" for France and rally the nation in a "spirit of outreach."

Sarkozy on Thursday appointed the reform-minded conservative to replace outgoing Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Fillon, 53, is a member of Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party.

He made a name for himself by tackling a tricky retirement reform and was social affairs minister from 2002 to 2004. After being dismissed from government, he became a major voice supporting Sarkozy's campaign to become president.

He met with Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace in Paris Thursday morning to discuss the post.

Fillon's appointment to the post comes one day after Sarkozy took office, replacing Jacques Chiracand vowing to pull France out of economic stagnation, to lower social tensions and to inspire new confidence in his compatriots.

Sarkozy is expected to announce the rest of his new government as early as Friday so the new team can set about implementing Sarkozy's promises of change and reform to rev up the sluggish French economy.

The streamlined government is to be made up of 15 ministers, half of them women and at least one from the left to signal the willingness of Sarkozy, accused of divisiveness by rivals, to include figures from outside his political camp.

Socialist Bernard Kouchner, an eminent figure of the left and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders, has been tapped for the post of foreign minister but there has been no official word as to whether he has accepted the job.