Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen the head of his ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, Patrick Devedjian, to implement his ambitious economic stimulus plan, Sarkozy's office said on Friday.

The 64-year-old Devedjian will become part of the government and occupy a ministerial-level post in the office of Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

On Thursday, Sarkozy presented an economic stimulus plan that will cost some 26 billion euros (33 billion dollars) to implement.

It includes support for the ailing auto and housing sectors, accelerated state payments of tax credits and rebates to French industry and accelerated public infrastructure investments.

PARIS, Dec. 4 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday unveiled a $33 billion economic stimulus plan aimed at jump starting France's economy.

The stimulus measures include support for the construction and car industries as well as for small businesses, The Financial Times reported.

Sarkozy said the stimulus package would "make a massive effort on investment" rather than boost consumption.

Paris - The France-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday named jailed Cuban journalist Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso its 2008 Reporter of the Year.

The award was bestowed on the dissident Cuban "for helping an independent press to survive in Cuba," the group said on its web site.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday unveiled a plan with massive state investment and aid to the housing and auto industries worth some 26 billion euros (32.84 billion dollars).

Speaking in the northern French industrial city of Douai, Sarkozy announced a broad variety of measures, including a vast public works program worth 10.5 billion euros over the next two years and a series of state refunds to private enterprise worth 11 billion euros.

In addition, the plan earmarks 1.8 billion euros for the French housing sector. That would cover the construction of 70,000 new housing units, half of them public.

Paris - A French aid worker abducted in the streets of Kabul one month ago has been freed, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday.

Dany Egreteau, 32, who worked for the NGO Solidarity Laique, was kidnapped by armed men on November 3 while walking in the centre of the Afghan capital.

An Afghan secret service agent who tried to prevent the kidnapping was shot to death by the abductors.

In a statement, Kouchner thanked French and Afghan authorities for their efforts in obtaining Egreteau's release, and slammed the kidnappers for targeting aid workers.