"A doctor never resigns when faced with sick people," Mattei told the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. "I have nothing to hide. I am not afraid of the truth."

The left-wing opposition has called for Mattei's resignation over the center-right government's handling of the August heat wave, during which temperatures repeatedly reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The minister, accused of failing to respond quickly as the death toll mounted, said Friday in a statement that 11,435 more deaths than normal were registered between August 1 and 15, when the heat wave occurred.

Mattei warned of a rising death toll, telling Le Journal du Dimanche there would likely be what he called the "'deferred' deaths" of mainly elderly people worn out by the punishing weather.

"It's a human drama," Mattei said, hitting out at the families of victims whose bodies remained unclaimed in makeshift morgues outside Paris.

"It's the harsh revelation of a social fracture, of the solitude and isolation of the elderly. I'm revolted by these cadavers that no one has claimed," the minister said.

The government initially avoided issuing an death toll, but when France's largest chain of undertakers said that some 10,000 had died in the unusually hot weather, officials were forced to respond.

TERRA.WIRE