The IFOP survey not only showed that 79 per cent of the French feel their lives have not improved, but also that Mr Sarkozy has an approval rating of just 36 per cent, the lowest ever by a French president after one year in office.

Struggling to seize back momentum, Mr Sarkozy will give a prime-time, 90-minute interview on French television on Thursday that is billed as a key opportunity for him to turn the tide of public opinion.

Many of his recent woes have come from within his own camp, with ministers engaged in public bickering and forced to backtrack on a highly unpopular plan to scrap subsidised discounts on train tickets for large families.

But France, along with much of Europe, is facing a gloomy economic outlook which significantly reduces his room to manoeuvre as he seeks to bring in the sweeping reforms he promised in his election campaign last year.

Former premier Edouard Balladur, a member of Mr Sarkozy's governing party, said much had been done in a year, but that the government needed to set clear priorities, which in turn would be better understood by French voters.

'Rarely has so much been done in so little time,' Mr Balladur told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

The government earlier this month rolled out a deficit reduction plan to trim 7 billion euros (S$15 billion) in spending by 2011 as consumers felt the sting from inflation, which is at the highest level since the 1990s.

But Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who is vying to lead the Socialist opposition against Mr Sarkozy and ranks as France's most popular politician, suggested the government was at a loss to deal with the constraints of the difficult economic climate.

'This government does not know where it is going, and it is dragging France with it,' he told the Le Parisien paper.

High school students have also been staging street protests in Paris over the past three weeks against a government plan to cut 11,200 education jobs, part of an overall drive to scale back the public service.

And on foreign policy, Mr Sarkozy has been accused of cosying up to the United States by taking France back into Nato's integrated command and talking tough on Iran's nuclear programme.

But perhaps the most noticeable shift in the Elysee has been his metamorphosis from the whirlwind 'hyperactive' presidency of the early days to the more statesman-like image he is now projecting.

The 53-year-old right-winger also divorced his second wife Cecilia and married supermodel and singer Carla Bruni while in office.

Pollsters pointed to his glitzy romance at a time of economic pessimism as a key factor in his popularity slump.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE