Nicolas Sarkozy has made no secret of his presidential ambitions

Mr Sarkozy said future presidents should take a greater role in the day-to-day governing of the country.

In a new year's address, he also said he would reform the immigration system, and increase the number of deportations from under 20,000 to 25,000 next year.

And he urged the European Union to halt enlargement until it had reformed its institutions.

But he said that this should not interfere with the pace of progress among larger nations, such as France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy and Poland, who should form a "strategic partnership" and play a genuine role as the engine of the EU.

Role reversal

The minister said last autumn's urban rioting reflected years of political failure, and he called for a shake-up of France's power structure.

"Rather than a president who presides, we need a president who leads. The future president will inevitably be different from the ones who came before," Mr Sarkozy said.

President Chirac has not ruled out running for a third term

Mr Sarkozy has made no secret of his intention to run for president in elections next year, and his comments will be seen as a thinly veiled attack on President Jacques Chirac, says the BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris.

In addition, Mr Sarkozy said, parliament should take on the presidential role of determining foreign and defence policy.

The prime minister's role should be reduced to that of governmental co-ordinator.

In what was seen as a reference to Mr Chirac, who has not ruled out running for president for a third time, Mr Sarkozy said presidential mandates should be restricted to two.

"The energy spent on staying [in power] is not spent on doing," he said.