French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a newspaper interview with the French weekend newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday that he made errors in his management of the controversial First Employment Contract (CPE) job law.

"We live at a time where there is a constant attempt to set some people against others. That is not my idea of politics and I refuse to get involved in this kind of game," he said.

"There is misunderstanding and incomprehension about the direction of my action. I profoundly regret it," he said.

He also said he did not feel he had been disavowed by French President Jacques Chirac and he was not "a man to give up".

On Friday Chirac signed the law and offered later two key modifications to the law: reducing a trial period from two years to one and requiring employers to provide an explanation in case of firing.

But the law was published Sunday in the Official Journal before it had any modified version.

French trade unions and student organizations rejected a compromise offered by Chirac and called for another round of national strikes and demonstrations for Tuesday.

The CPE law is aimed at reducing a high youth unemployment rate, which reaches as much as 23 percent among youths and up to 50 percent in some poor, heavily immigrant areas.

But opponents said it will erode hard-won labour rights and make it more difficult for youths to find long-term jobs and criticized that maneuver as "surrealistic" and "undemocratic".

Source: Xinhua