France needs to achieve spending cuts and tax increases worth a cumulative total of €80bn (£64bn) if it is to eliminate its public deficit by 2012, according to a parliamentary report.

The evaluation of the 2008 budget by the French Senate illustrates the task facing President Nicolas Sarkozy who so far has taken only tentative steps towards his promise of balancing the books by the end of his first five-year term and is now saddled with a slowing economy. This year the eurozone's second-biggest economy is officially forecast to grow by 1.7 to 2 per cent.