Key ministers quit in reshuffle

PRESIDENT Sarkozy has defended a cabinet reshuffle that saw the Foreign and Interior Ministers leave their posts.

Foreign Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie had been under pressure to resign for several weeks following revelations about a Christmas holiday in Tunisia, where she accepted hospitality from allies of the country's former regime.

Subsequent revelations that she had lied about the level of contact with members of the Tunisian government while visiting the country, flying in the private jet of a friend of the country's former leader, Ben Ali, made her position more difficult. She resigned at the weekend.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux, who has been convicted of racism and contempt of court (breaching the presumption of innocence) while in office, has stepped down from his position to become an adviser to the president ahead of the 2012 election.

Hortefeux is also the subject of a second charge of racism, brought in December, after his comments on the conviction of seven police officers for falsifying evidence to manufacture charges that a motorist ran over one of the officers.

The case is waiting judgment on whether Hortefeux was speaking in his capacity as minister or not, to decide on the subsequent procedure.

Defence minister Alain Juppé has been moved to the Foreign Office, while the president's adviser Claude Guéant has moved to the Interior Ministry.

Juppé is replaced by Gérard Longuet, the current head of the UMP in the Senate.

Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon said that the resignation of Alliot-Marie signalled the "total fiasco" of President Sarkozy's foreign policy.

"If the France of Nicolas Sarkozy failed to help the Arab revolutions, it's because it turned its back on our values," he said.

Former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal said the president was the sole person responsible for "painful errors".

Photo: Michele Alliot Marie, credit Harald Dettenborn