PM: France safe bet for investors

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the first head of state to visit Syria in 33 years, arrived Friday in Damascus on a mission to bolster diplomatic ties and forge new economic relations.Cabinet members including French Economic Minister Christine Lagarde and Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand accompanied Fillon for the 24-hour visit, along with a delegation of top businessmen.Fillon is to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad later on Friday, while French and Syrian officials are to sign several economic and cultural agreements on Saturday.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Sunday inaugurated a campus at the Abu Dhabi branch of the famed Sorbonne with a call for dialogue and an appeal against the idea of a clash of civilisations.Fillon, on the first visit to the United Arab Emirates by a French premier since the UAE was founded in 1971, also held talks in Dubai and toured a French military base in Abu Dhabi.The Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi is a "place of dialogue and sharing," the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Monday that the French government has lowered its forecast for economic growth this year to 0.5 percent from 1.0 percent.The revision was made to "take into account the deterioration of the economic situation," he told reporters a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled plans for new taxes he hopes will fix France's ailing economy.Sarkozy is facing a presidential election in three months that he is tipped to lose to his Socialist rival Francois Hollande.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lent him and his family a plane and paid for their lodgings during a Christmas holiday in Egypt.The statement from the prime minister's office confirmed a report in the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine.It came amid calls for the resignation of France's foreign minister after she admitted travelling in a private plane owned by a businessman allegedly close to relatives of Tunisia's ousted dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy cleared the decks for his long-awaited cabinet reshuffle Saturday by accepting the pro forma resignation of Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his entire government.Fillon is expected to be rapidly re-appointed premier, and he will then go on to name a new team of ministers, hoping to reinvigorate the government and thus kickstart Sarkozy's undeclared 2012 re-election campaign.Government officials and the governing UMP party said Sarkozy would name a new prime minister and cabinet as soon as Sunday.

Syria can make economic progress by helping Middle East peace efforts, including finding an agreement on Iran's nuclear drive, visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Saturday."One of the conditions of continued economic development in Syria is peace and security in the region," Fillon said at the opening of an economic forum in Syria's capital Damascus."If France decides to resume and strengthen dialogue with Syria, it will be because we believe Syria has a key role in establishing peace in the Middle East," said Fillon.