Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said critics were using his 23-year-old son's controversial candidacy for an influential post to attack him.

"Who is targeted by this controversy? It's not my son. It's me," Sarkozy told the daily Le Figaro in an interview that is to be published Friday.

Jean Sarkozy's candidacy for the post of chairman of the board of directors of EPAD, the public body that manages the La Defense district, has provoked an outcry among opposition politicians, who accuse the president of nepotism.

Situated in the western suburbs of Paris, La Defense is Europe's largest business district and home to the headquarters of some 2,500 companies.

Critics say that Jean Sarkozy, who has completed only two years of law school, is too young and inexperienced to fill such an important post.

Those who raise these objections include members of Sarkozy's UMP party, some of whom have qualified the move as a blunder.

"Is there an age for being competent? I wish for the rejuvenation of our political elites, who have truly aged," Nicolas Sarkozy said.

He said his son has met the attacks with "a great deal of courage."  dpa