Douste-Blazy, who assumed his post just over a month ago in a government reshuffle, mapped out a four-level alert system aimed at fostering better cooperation among police, emergency services and health care providers.

He also allocated more than 20 million euros (24.3 million dollars) to homes for the elderly -- the main victims of the 2003 heat wave -- so that facility administrators can set up at least one air-conditioned room for emergency use.

The minister urged city and town halls to carry out a census of older people in their communities in order to create a list of "vulnerable persons" requiring immediate assistance in extreme weather conditions.

"We're talking about a heat wave, but there might not be another heat wave," Douste-Blazy told reporters, noting that the plan could be implemented to confront other health emergencies.

The minister, who was mayor of Toulouse in September 2001 when an explosion at a chemical plant killed 30 people and injured more than 1,000 people, said he had "seen what it meant to be unprepared for something like that".

"I will do everything possible so that we can prepare ourselves for a catastrophe," he told reporters.

The center-right government came under sharp criticism for its handling of last year's crisis, which was seen as tardy, insufficient and inept.

Despite increasingly strident warnings from hospital doctors as bodies piled up, the government only implemented a nationwide emergency plan after the heat wave, which struck during the first two weeks of August, had all but passed.

France was shocked by the soaring death toll, which reached 14,802, according to a report issued last September by the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

Most of those who succumbed to the punishing temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and above were elderly people living alone or in retirement homes.

Jean-Francois Mattei, health minister when the crisis erupted, was ousted from the government in the reshuffle following the center-right's rout in March regional polls. Surgeon general Lucien Abenhaim resigned over the disaster.

In the new emergency alert system, level one -- activated from June to October -- calls for strict monitoring of temperatures across the country.

At the other extreme, level four would signal a nationwide crisis and allow Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to requisition troops. Douste-Blazy said last summer's heat wave qualified as a level three emergency.

The government's new plan encompasses a five-year 480-million-euro initiative unveiled last September, which created 10,000 jobs and opened 15,000 emergency hospital beds.

Doctors and health care providers generally voiced support for Douste-Blazy's proposals, with the president of France's emergency response teams (Samu), Marc Giroud, saying: "The plan is complete, coherent, it goes from A to Z."

TERRA.WIRE