"It would be, as is done in Germany, a bank holiday on which employees would work in the name of national public solidarity," state secretary for the elderly Hubert Falco said after a cabinet meeting.

Late Tuesday, Falco participated in a meeting with health care professionals chaired by Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to discuss the plight of the frail and elderly in the wake of the heat wave that left thousands dead.

The proposal to suppress a bank holiday was one of many measures discussed at the talks, aimed at fleshing out a multi-year action plan to protect the frail and elderly, many of whom live alone.

May 8 -- Victory in Europe Day -- has been cited as a holiday that could be forsaken, prompting junior veterans affairs minister Hamlaoui Mekachera to express concern about the proposal.

"One has to be very careful before making a decision... these are dates of remembrance to which some people are very attached," Mekachera told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Falco declined to name specific holidays that could be eliminated.

Raffarin's center-right government is facing criticism that it failed to respond quickly to the health emergency stemming from the punishing heat that scorched France for the first two weeks of August.

The country's largest undertakers' group has put the death toll at about 10,000, but the government has vehemently disputed that figure, with Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei estimating mid-month that some 3,000 had died.

TERRA.WIRE