spending

France has more combat aircraft, more frigates and more troops than Britain despite spending significantly less on defence, according to the military balance, an annual comparison of the strengths of armed forces around the world by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In a rare move, General Pierre de Villiers wrote an appeal in French financial daily Les Echos calling for military spending to increase to 2% of GDP over the next five years, including an upgrading of nuclear arsenals, in order to protect France from against "the full spectrum of threats".

The former French president was quizzed over alleged fraudulent system of false invoices to hide gross overspending on his failed re-election bid.

Economy minister Emmanuel Macron made pledge despite France's plans to create 5,000 jobs in security forces and avoid defence spending cuts.

Local town halls across France, many already heavily indebted, must bear a significant part of the pledged 50 billion-euro public spending cuts.

The Cour des Comptes has called for a bigger effort to reverse the rise in French public debt, set to top 95 per cent of national income this year.

In return for getting two more years to bring its budget deficit back in line France must start its reforms this year says European Commission.

French Senate president Gérard Larcher entered office on a high-profile campaign to cut spending and impose budgetary discipline within the French parliament's notoriously lavish upper house. Mediapart this month obtained access to the payroll of the president's private staff, and it reveals anything but austerity. The average monthly salary is 8,500 euros while his principal private secretary earns more than 19,000 euros, just a few hundred euros short of the pay of French Prime Minister François Fillon. Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report.