French ministers ordered to publish assets within days amid tax fraud scandal

France's Socialist government said it had ordered ministers to declare their assets publicly within days, as it seeks to limit the damage from a tax fraud scandal involving a former minister.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that ministers would have until April 15 to publish details of their assets as part of a package of new financial transparency measures.

The government would also put forward a law on financial transparency among ministers and other top officials by April 24, with plans for it to be adopted by the summer, he said.

The move comes as President Francois Hollande's government scrambles to contain a scandal surrounding former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, who was charged with tax fraud last week after admitting to having an undeclared foreign bank account.

Ayrault said in a statement on Monday that measures to boost financial transparency would be presented to a cabinet meeting today, and that he would meet with the speakers and faction chiefs of the lower and upper houses of parliament the following day.

"The prime minister is preparing … a package of measures to ensure complete transparency on the assets of politicians and staff working with ministers, the president and the prime minister," the statement said.

Measures would also be taken to "more severely punish breaches of the financial law and ethics and integrity rules, and to strengthen the fight against tax fraud and tax havens".