Villepin, who was named Tuesday by President Jacques Chirac, met with the French leader at the Elysee early Wednesday. Government sources said the new cabinet line-up would be unveiled by week's end, but probably not on Wednesday.

The 51-year-old prime minister, who replaced the unpopular Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was to appear on TF1 television at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT).

But the buzz in political circles and in the French media on Wednesday was about Chirac's announcement that Nicolas Sarkozy -- his arch-rival and head of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) -- would return to government.

"In a spirit of rallying together, I have asked Nicolas Sarkozy to join the government as a minister of state and he has accepted," the president, reeling after Sunday's EU debacle, said in an address to the nation late Tuesday.

Sarkozy, the charismatic 50-year-old former interior and finance minister, has made no secret of his desire to run for president in 2007 nor hidden his dislike for Villepin, who is Chirac's loyal lieutenant.

But he told a group of UMP parliamentary deputies: "I will assume my responsibilities and my duties. What would you say if I decided to stand by and watch the ship sink?"