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Juppe to make

decision on

Madelin's reforms

PARIS: French Prime Minister Alain Juppe, is to decide this week how far to go along with the fiscal reforms planned by Alain Madelin, whom he sacked as finance minister last Friday for outspokenness.

Madelin was intending to introduce his first steps towards reform in the finance law implementing the 1996 budget, even though they would not come into effect before 1997.

"The decision to include a first series of measures in the 1996 budget will be made in the next few days," a Juppe aide said Monday.

The prime minister is faced with the dilemma of facing the wrath of those who would lose their perks, or being accused of doing nothing in the face of soaring public deficits.

Madelin himself was sacked because he criticised the advantages enjoyed in particular by government employees, ahead of delicate negotiations with the trade unions.-AFP