French new Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Friday reaffirmed at the first ministers' meeting after major government reshuffle that the big battle of the government remains employment.

"Everyone measures the hugeness of the work incumbent on us, everyone measures the impatiences and the expectations that the French voters expressed on May 29" by rejecting the European Union (EU) constitutional treaty, government's spokesman Jean-Francois Cope quoted Villepin as saying.

"To answer this need the mobilization and constant action of each of you," Villepin told his ministers.

"Our method relies on a double requirement, a requirement of result and a requirement of collegial structure," he noted.

"The big battle of the government is employment with the constant concern of pragmatism and social dialogue."

Villepin, 51, who earned a worldwide reputation for his impassioned defense of France's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq when he served as foreign minister from 2002 to 2004 in Jean- Pierre Raffarin's government, replaced unpopular Raffarin who resigned after French people rejected EU constitution at Sunday referendum.

Source: Xinhua