New president: Madagascar never to separate from France

ANTANANARIVO, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Andry Nirina Rajoelina, Madagascar's newly-installed president, declared here on Thursday that the Indian Ocean Island country would never separate itself from France.

Following his meeting with the new French ambassador to Madagascar, Jean-Marc Chataigner, who arrived here last Wednesday, Rajoelina told the Media that Madagascar and its former ruler had a common history.

"We can never underestimate our relation with France," added Rajoelina, who was legalized by the High Constitutional Court (HCC)on Wednesday as president of the country together with the transitional government he announced early last month.

Jean-Marc Chataigner, the first French ambassador to arrive to its former colony in the last seven months, paid a courtesy call to Rajoelina Thursday morning, during which they discussed the management of his transitional government as well as the strengthening of relationship between the two countries.

Chataigner, received at the international airport here upon his arrival by Rajoelina, is also the first foreign diplomat met by Rajoelina since the HCC legalized his presidency a day earlier.

Relationship between Antananarivo and Paris has been worsening since 2002, when Marc Ravalomanana took over as president of the country following a 6-month stalemate with his predecessor, Didier Ratsiraka, who has been living in exile in France ever since.

After his meeting with the French ambassador, Rajoelina called a meeting of his transitional government, during which it decided to suspend the functioning of the two-house parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate.

Spokesman and Minister of Post and High Technology of the transitional government, the transitional government, informed the media that 10 ministers, appointed by Rajoelina early last month, were ratified under a decree signed by the president.

At his first press conference as president of the country, Rajoelina said that the purpose of the cabinet meeting was to "discuss strategies on how the transitional government should be functioning in a limited time".

To a question about international reaction on his legality to take over presidency of the country, he said that "all the people in the world would agree on what the High Constitutional Court has agreed".

"The transitional government has many duties, including the reconciliation between the armed forces, the politicians, the businessmen and the church," he said.

Editor: Mu Xuequan | www.chinaview.cn