PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he should have resisted the temptation to swear at a critical bystander at a trade fair at the weekend but stopped short of apologising in a newspaper interview on Tuesday.
A much-viewed video of the clash posted on Le Parisien'sWeb site showed him using an insult when a man in the crowd atan agricultural fair refused to shake his hand on Saturday.
"It is difficult even when you are the president not torespond to an insult," Sarkozy told a panel of Le Parisien'sreaders in an interview which the newspaper said was arrangedwell before the weekend.
"Just because you are the president doesn't mean you becomea doormat. That said, I would have done better not to reply tohim."
The exchange between Sarkozy and the unidentified man comesat a time when opinion polls show the president's popularity at36 percent, its lowest since his May 2007 election and down 19points in just three months.
In an interview in which he embraced his hyperactivereputation and admitted to a daily battle to keep his weight incheck, Sarkozy brushed off the polls, which have also shownPrime Minister Francois Fillon eclipsing his boss.
"You can't believe that when the polls are good thateverything is going well and that when the polls are bad,everything is going badly," he said.
"My vision of the role of the president is not to cultivatefriendship, to be the friend that you would dream of having."
His aim was rather to act on all fronts to shake up Franceand get results, he said.
"It is my duty to be hyperactive to wake up a country whichwas dozing," Sarkozy said.
"If I don't bang the table, if I don't demand results,nothing happens."
(Writing by Swaha Pattanaik; Editing by Matthew Jones)
