Chirac silent on third term

Jacques Chirac refused to say yesterday whether he would stand for a third term as president in 2007. In a Bastille Day interview on French television, he said it was too soon to announce his decision.

"This subject is entirely premature. You will know when the moment comes," he said.

Instead the 72-year-old president used his traditional Bastille Day speech to rally the French by putting a positive spin on recent setbacks. But Mr Chirac, who looked tired and weighed down by the record slump in his popularity, failed to offer anything new to disillusioned voters.

At one point he promised his government really would tackle France's economic woes and unemployment, and skirted the question of why he had not done this before during his 10 years in power.

Mr Chirac has been on the defensive after a string of political defeats, including the rejection of the European constitution by French voters in May, and Paris losing the 2012 Olympic s to London.

However, he managed to find a silver lining in France's rejection of the EU constitution. He said the vote had sent a "strong but positive message", and he was impressed by the "quality of the debate".

In what was seen as a dig at his rival, the interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is a fan of the Anglo-Saxon economic model, Mr Chirac suggested that France had nothing to learn from Britain. While expressing respect for Tony Blair, he said every aspect of society, except unemployment, was better in France.

"I don't think the British model is one we would envy or copy," Mr Chirac said.

He also took a tough line in the row with Britain over the EU budget. Britain has said it will only agree to concessions on its annual rebate if there is a review of the Common Agricultural Policy and the subsidies received by French farmers. "I am not inclined to make the least concession on the CAP," the president said.

He refused to respond to attacks on him by Mr Sarkozy, who has made no secret of his presidential ambitions.