Sarkozy tasks Juppe to repair French image

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is betting on one of the country's most tested politicians to restore credibility to French diplomacy at a crucial time for relations with North Africa and his own popularity ratings.

Sarkozy, who faces a pasting from the left if he runs for re-election in 2012, named veteran conservative Alain Juppe as foreign minister on Sunday after Michele Alliot-Marie quit over her bungled handling of the Tunisia crisis.

An experienced technocrat who was a deft foreign minister in the 1990s, Juppe is a smart choice to repair the damage done by Alliot-Marie - who was being flown to Tunisian resorts in the jet of a friend of former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali while protesters below were battling to oust him.