Fourth French minister quits cabinet

French media believes Aubry has higher ambitions

Paris, France (CNN) -- French Employment Minister Martine Aubry has become the fourth cabinet minister in a year to quit the government of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Aubry, 50, resigned on Wednesday to fulfil a pledge to run as mayor of the northern city of Lille in March's municipal elections.

Her departure comes only six weeks after Jospin's Interior Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement resigned over government plans for limited Corsican autonomy.

Their exit follows those of Finance Minster Dominique Strauss-Khan and Education Minister Claude Allegre from the cabinet called the "dream team" when Jospin was elected in 1997.

Aubry's resignation sparked a major reshuffle. Jospin moved Elisabeth Guigou from justice to replace her and appointed Marylise Lebranchu as Justice Minister.

Lebranchu was replaced by Francois Patriat as junior minister for commerce, consumer affairs and small and medium enterprise.

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The reshuffle was announced just before the weekly cabinet meeting.

CNN's Paris Bureau Chief Peter Humi said Aubry was one of the key players in the socialist establishment and her resignation will be a blow to Jospin.

But he said her resignation did not come as a surprise as she had announced her intention to run for mayor of Lille some time ago.

Some sections of the French media believe Aubry has quit in order to lay the foundations of either a presidential or prime ministerial bid.

Aubry, daughter of former European Commission president Jacques Delors, was behind one of the government's most ambitious and controversial reforms - the reduction in the working week to 35 hours.

The measure has created almost 300,000 jobs, but has proved unpopular with many employers.

She has battled in cabinet and parliament to win support and state funds to subsidise companies that sign up to a massive youth employment programme.

She also fought to widen France's healthcare system free-of-charge to hundreds of thousands of people with little or no income.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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