Paris - The entire year of 2009 will be an economic crisis, with no date in sight for a recovery, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday.

"Today, no one can know when we will emerge from this crisis. What is known is that the entire year 2009 will be a year of crisis," Fillon told Europe 1 radio.

The French premier also admitted that the government's stimulus package would not prevent the crisis from taking hold in France.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Monday launched the government's 26 billion-euro (33 billion-dollar) plan to pull the country out of the economic crisis, French media reported.

In the southern city of Lyon, Fillon outlined the proposal, which comprises 1,000 public projects, primarily involving infrastructure construction and renovation.

The plan, said Fillon, was part of an "urgent and concrete national mobilization to confront the ongoing crisis."

Some 11 billion euros are intended to provide cash to struggling enterprises, Fillon said.

Paris  - France is withdrawing 2,100 of its soldiers stationed in Africa, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Wednesday.

Of the 1,650 French troops deployed with the EUFOR force in Chad, 1,000 are to be called home. Another 1,100 soldiers will be withdrawn from the Ivory Coast, Fillon said.

The French Parliament was to vote on the troop reductions late Wednesday.

In addition, two French battleships were to be withdrawn from their mission of supporting UN forces in southern Lebanon.

Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said that sanctions against Russia are not on the agenda for Monday's EU emergency summit in Brussels. Fillon instead called for dialogue with Moscow.

The meeting, due to begin at 3 pm Brussels time (1300 GMT), had been called to find a common EU position on the issues arising from in the Georgia conflict in August. Sanctions had been widely discussed as one way to reign in an increasingly assertive Russia.

However, Fillon said "Russia is a very large country that matters."