PARIS, March 30: French President Jacques Chirac said on Friday France was not politically committed to balancing its public finances by 2004, and that as things stood at present he did not see it being possible.

However, Chirac, who is running for reelection next month, said it may be possible to get rid of government debt by 2005 and no matter what, he would respect the European Union’s Growth and Stability Pact, which underpins the euro.

I do not think that, things being as they are, we can do it in 2004, if it is not 2004, it will be 2005, Chirac, a conservative who has vowed to cut taxes by a third over five years if reelected, said on France Info radio.

It is out of question to tamper with the Stability Pact, it is a European undertaking. It is out of the question for anyone to put it in doubt, certainly not France and certainly not me.

Chirac has swung back and forth on the issue, saying he would push back the deadline to 2007 from the present left-wing government’s target of 2004-5, but said last week France must respect the pact after earning a warning from Brussels.

Under the pact, countries agreed to balance their public finances — welfare, local authority and central budget finances — in the medium term.

While a definition of “medium term” is not specified in the pact, the European Commission has urged countries to stick to previous commitments to wipe out their public deficits by 2004.

The government of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, Chirac’s main challenger in the two-round election on April 21 and May 5, presented a plan earlier this year to wipe out public deficit by 2004-5 as agreed with partners in the euro zone.

However, Chirac said on Friday that since a deadline of 2004 was agreed by EU finance ministers and not government heads it had no judicial value and was not a political commitment.

The European Commission has said a plan revealed by senior advisors to Chirac earlier this month that envisaged shifting the deadline for a balanced budget to 2007 would make nonsense of the Stability Pact.—Reuters