PARIS, May 16: Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded Jacques Chirac as French president on Wednesday, promising to usher in an era of change while holding up wartime sacrifices as an inspiration for the new France he wants to build.

In a day of high pageantry and symbolic gesture, Sarkozy made his inaugural speech under the chandeliers of the Elysee Palace, which will be his home for the next five years.

“I will defend the independence of France. I will defend the identity of France,” said the conservative leader, who is the first French head of state to be born after World War II.

“There is a need to unite the French people ... and to meet commitments because never before has (public) confidence been so shaken and so fragile,” he said in an apparent dig at Chirac, a former political mentor with whom he now has strained relations. Sarkozy, who scored a comprehensive election victory on May 6, also pledged to put the fight against global warming and the defence of human rights at the heart of his foreign policy.

His first act after his speech was to greet family members, including his wife, Cecilia, who has hardly been seen in public this year, fuelling speculation about their marriage.

Following a private lunch, Sarkozy rode in an open-top car up the Avenue des Champs Elysees, escorted by the mounted Republican Guard, and rekindled the flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

He shook hands with well-wishers and laid wreaths at statues of France's World War I and II leaders, Georges Clemenceau and General Charles de Gaulle, before honouring 35 resistance fighters killed by the Nazis on the outskirts of Paris.

“Children of France remember that through their sacrifice these fine men conquered the freedom that you enjoy today,” he said. He then flew to Berlin to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel.

—Agencies