By Emmanuel Jarry
LE PETIT BORNAND, France (Reuters) - French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy announced a minor cabinet reshuffle on Tuesdaybut vowed to pursue reform plans after his centre-right UMPparty suffered big losses in local elections at the weekend.
"What is sure is that I will need to take a certain numberof initiatives to continue the changes that are needed for ourcountry," he said at the sidelines of a commemoration forFrance's World War Two resistance movement.
"I was elected to conduct these policies and that's what Iam going to do," he said.
The comments, shortly before the appointment of six newjunior ministers including new secretaries of state for foreigntrade and employment, repeated the government line that therewould be no change of course after the election.
An opinion poll by the BVA polling institute showed 63percent of those questioned judged the government's economicpolicies bad or very bad, against 58 percent a month ago.
The poll also found that 51 percent thought he should adapthis policies to reflect the concerns of voters over socialissues and the need to protect services, against 40 percent whowanted faster reforms of pensions and public finances.
Sarkozy, whose own personal unpopularity played a big rolein the campaign, has made little direct comment on theelection, that left the opposition Socialists in charge ofseven of France's top 10 cities including the capital Paris aswell as most of its administrative regions.
Ten months after his election in May 2007, his image hasbeen dented by crumbling public confidence in the economy andirritation at a sometimes impetuous and brusque manner thatmany voters feel is unbecoming of a president.
PRESIDENTIAL
Sarkozy's public agenda this week has been filled mainlywith events in keeping with the traditional role of thepresident, beginning with a commemoration on Monday for thelast French veteran of World War One.
On Tuesday, he continued with a visit to the Glieresplateau in the mountainous Haute Savoie region of easternFrance, scene of one of the biggest battles between wartimeresistance forces and the occupying Germans.
"This is not the place for a political speech and there'sso much agitation," he said. "There needs to be a lot of calmin the position I hold, a lot of cool-headedness."
There was no fanfare about the ministerial changes, whichwere announced in a statement issued from Sarkozy's office.
Among the new ministers, Anne-Marie Idrac, former head ofFrench national railway operator SNCF, was named minister forforeign trade and Laurent Wauquiez, up to now the governmentspokesman, was appointed minister for employment. He will bereplaced as spokesman by consumer affairs minister Luc Chatel.
Yves Jego, spokesman for the UMP party, was named ministerfor overseas territories, replacing Christian Estrosi, whostepped down after he was elected mayor of Nice.
The new cabinet list issued on Tuesday showed EconomyMinister Christine Lagarde's title had changed from "Economyand Finance" to "Economy, Industry and Employment" but therewas no indication that this implied a change in herresponsibilities.
Budget and Public Accounts Minister Eric Woerth also kepthis portfolio.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Emile Picy andSophie Louet)
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Dominic Evans)
