February 13, 2002	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 29, 1422

PARIS, Feb 12: Jacques Chirac, 69, announced on Monday that he would be seeking another term as President of France. It will be the fourth presidential campaign for Chirac who began his current term in 1995.

Although the decision was expected, Chirac, who is a Gaullist, had until now intimated that he would be making it only in March, at which time is expected the announcement by his most likely rival, Jospin, a Socialist who turns 65 this year.

According to sources close to the prime minister, it is possible that Jospin will now move forward the date of his own announcement.

Recent polls had indicated that Chirac was losing steam, indeed they were giving Jospin as the probable winner. But, above all the polls were indicating loudly and clearly that the French had become impatient with a campaign, although undeclared, that many of them thought already quite boring.

In a Harris-AOL-Liberation poll published on Monday, 62 per cent of French voters who were interrogated said that they were either hardly interested or not interested at all in the campaign for elections.