Tuesday, May 31 2005 19:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: President Jacques Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was France's voice against the Iraq war, as Prime Minister today (May 31, 2005) to head a new Government in response to a humiliating referendum defeat.

Villepin, 51, moves from the Interior Ministry to replace Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dumped after voters on Sunday (May 29, 2005) roundly rejected Chirac's call for the ratification of a European Union constitution.

Chirac charged Villepin with the task of forming a new Government.

Villepin arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace just minutes after Chirac bid farewell to Raffarin with a handshake on the palace steps.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads Chirac's governing center-right party, is being brought back into government to head the Interior Ministry that Villepin vacates, lawmaker Yves Jego, who is close to Sarkozy, told France-Info radio.

The silver-haired Villepin takes over at a difficult time, Unemployment is running at 10 percent and the French political establishment is reeling from Sunday's referendum that marked a stinging humiliation for Chirac.

Raffarin, in a short address after the president accepted his resignation, promised that his successor would work to bring a significant drop in unemployment in the last two year of Chirac's second term - which could be his last.