Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced earlier today an investment plan which is worth more than 26 billion euros (32.84 billion dollars).

Speaking in the northern French industrial city of Douai, Sarkozy announced a broad variety of measures, including a vast public works program worth 10.5 billion euros over the next two years and a series of state refunds to private enterprise worth 11 billion euros.

In addition, the plan earmarks 1.8 billion euros for the French housing sector. That would cover the construction of 70,000 new housing units, half of them public.

Sarkozy also announced a series of measures for the country's ailing auto industry, including 1 billion euros for a line of refinancing to enable carmakers to provide credit to potential car purchasers.

However, Sarkozy hinged the aid to France's carmakers on a commitment that they stop outsourcing car production work to foreign countries.

"There will be no aid without a commitment not to outsource production," Sarkozy said. "There will be no aid if the new car engines are not made in France."

Sarkozy said the plan would add an additional 15.5 billion euros to the government's public expenditure, and bring its public debt in 2009 to 4 per cent of GDP, compared to the 3.1 per cent foreseen before the crisis began.

The 26 billion euros spent on the plan represent about 1.3 per cent of France's GDP, well above the 1.2 per cent demanded by the European Union for national plans to confront the economic crisis.

"This crisis is not a temporary crisis," Sarkozy said. "This crisis is a structural crisis that will transform our society, our economy and out politics for a long time."

The result of the crisis and the various responses to it will be "a new balance between the state and the marketplace," he said.