PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy, head of France's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, is to be named interior minister in the new government formed Tuesday after voters rejected the EU constitution in a referendum, informed sources told AFP.
The 50-year-old rightwinger -- consistently named in surveys as one of the country's most popular politicians -- already served as interior minister from 2002 to 2004.
The sources said he will keep his position at the helm of the UMP.
Dominique de Villepin, who has been interior minister since last year, was named France's new prime minister earlier after the resignation of Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
President Jacques Chirac is trying to rebuild political momentum after the disaster of Sunday's referendum defeat.
Sarkozy -- who makes no secret of his desire to succeed Chirac in the presidency -- left the government in November 2004 after serving six months as finance minister. Chirac refused to allow him to stay in the cabinet after he was chosen as president of the UMP.
Since then he has begun transforming the party into a machine for his own presidential ambitions. The next election is in 2007.
"I will assume my responsibilities and my duties," Sarkozy told a meeting of UMP parliamentary deputies on Tuesday, one of the participants told AFP.
"What would you say if I decided to stand by and watch the ship sink?" he added, to loud applause.
Well-informed sources said Chirac did not pose any conditions to Sarkozy's return to government when the two met on Monday.
Sarkozy is known to have a tense relationship with Villepin, who has never run for office. In a speech last week Sarkozy attacked "those who criticise but do not know how to win an election."
The UMP chief openly espouses liberal economic and social policies. After the overwhelming victory of the "no" vote on Sunday, he said: "The French are calling on us to act quickly and vigorously to change the status quo."
05/31/2005 12:37 GMT