FRANCE: PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC INAUGURATION

Eng/French/Nat

Jacques Chirac has been inaugurated as President of France, succeeding his former arch rival Francois Mitterrand.

Despite their political differences, the outgoing leader and his successor shook hands on the steps of the Elysee Palace as the transfer of power was sealed.

Earlier on Wednesday, in a private meeting, Mitterrand briefed Chirac and gave him the secret code for launching France's nuclear arsenal.

The Elysee palace and for the first time in fourteen years a conservative now occupies France's top political office.

A few finishing touches and the place is set for the ceremony of handing over power from the outgoing president to the new.

First to arrive are those who helped the new president Jacques Chirac to office and senior public servants.

Men like the Cardinal of France Jean Marie Lustiger and General Feret, the Grand Commander of the Legion of Honour.

Chirac is expected to name his outgoing foreign minister Alain Juppe as his prime minister.

The president's wife Bernadette arrived with their daughter Claude, who has been instrumental in her father's campaign. She has been credited with modernising Chirac's image, making him popular with the young.

Chirac traveled to the presidential palace in a slow-moving limousine with the obligatory police escort. Earlier he had placed a wreathe at the tomb of his political role-model General de Gaulle in the village of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises.

Chirac was greeted at the steps of the Elysee by a frail Francois Mitterrand who is dying of cancer of the prostate..

When Chirac was prime minister he had several clashes with Mitterrand, at one point Mitterrand refused to sign a Chirac decree on privatisation. Now bygones are bygones and recently the ailing former president has had praise for his former rival, calling him wiser and more mature.

Chirac was presented with Legion of Honour, a customary accolade for new presidents.

In his inauguration speech he called on all French people to work together.

SOUNDBITE: French
(I ask that) France be more confident, have more solidarity, be more European...because the interior forces are always the source of a larger movement. With the help of good-willed men and women, and in the spirit of rules and institutions, and also the idea that I have of my mission. I will be for the French people and the guardian of the public's rights.

SUPER CAPTION: Jacques Chirac, French President
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