PARIS - FRENCH Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Saturday his country had no choice but to quicken the pace of economic reform at a time US growth is slowing and the outlook for global growth appears to lie in China's hands.

Mr Fillon was speaking a day after employers and trades unions finalised a raft of measures designed to improve labour market flexibility that the government has promised to turn into law before summer despite lingering doubts among some unions.

'US growth is running out of steam and the sub-prime crisis is beginning to make itself felt. Some people on the other side of the Atlantic are speaking openly about the risk of recession,' Mr Fillon told a meeting of France's ruling UMP party.

He predicted no let up in high commodity prices and said it was more important than ever that France undertakes reforms to make its economy less dependent on global trends.

'The economic slowdown does not justify any pause, or pullback but rather a deepening of the reform effort,' he said.

The measures agreed in principle by employers and trades union leaders late on Friday would make it less risky for firms to hire workers by extending probationary periods, and create a new type of temporary contract for skilled workers, like management consultants and computer programmers.

The cost of dismissing workers would also be more clearly defined, while workers would be able to retain some acquired rights in case of taking up a new job or becoming unemployed.

'The aim is to correct certain glitches in the labour market and invent new mechanisms to cut durably French unemployment,' (Mrs) Laurence Parisot, head of the Medef employers group, told French newspaper Journal Du Dimanche in an interview released ahead of publication on Sunday.

However, it was unclear on Saturday if trades union members, in a series of votes scheduled next week, would approve the measures. -- REUTERS