French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is facing growing pressure within his conservative ranks to solve a crisis over a youth job law, as trade unions and students geared up for new rallies.
Mr de Villepin said he was ready to discuss key concerns of unions but steadfastly refused to countenance withdrawal of the CPE First Job Contract, which allows employers to fire people under 26 without giving a reason during a two-year trial period.
Dominique de Villepin and his bodyguard leave the Elysee Palace in Paris following the weekly cabinet meeting today
With opposition to the CPE set to continue - unions have called for a national strike next week - commentators say Mr de Villepin's hardline stance risks damaging his thinly veiled ambition to run for president in 2007 if he does not budge.
His main conservative rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy who also heads the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), has so far supported Mr de Villepin but UMP deputies said he could distance himself from the law if the crisis dragged on.
The interior minister, usually one to hog the media limelight, has been unusually discreet over the CPE, leaving it to his party allies to snipe at the measure.
Mr Sarkozy is doubly exposed to the political downside of the crisis because as interior minister he has to police the mass protests that have sometimes degenerated into violence.
The CPE is one of the biggest crises to face Mr de Villepin's ten-month administration. The prime minister, who rammed the measure through parliament, says it will create the jobs needed to cut youth unemployment of around 23 per cent.
Opponents, who brought up to 1.5 million people onto the streets across France at the weekend, say it will create a generation of throwaway young workers with no job security.
Pressure on Mr de Villepin is heightened by the fact that a protester remains in a coma after being injured during Saturday night's violent clashes at Place de la Nation in Paris.
Protesters claim the union member was trampled on after police charged the crowd but police have cast doubt on that, saying that he told officers prior to losing consciousness that he was set upon and beaten by rioters.