The question on insiders' minds, however, is does he have the political clout to shake up France's flagging centre-right party and dethrone his arch-rival, Jacques Chirac?

Mr Sarkozy cuts a modern and unconventional figure. Sarko, as he is widely known, is hard-headed, determined and unashamedly ambitious. Preferring action to endless meetings, he is always on the move, organising lunches, visiting trouble spots and crafting television appearances. Mr Sarkozy is the politician who 'gets things done'.

'Nicolas is first and foremost a man of action. He likes simplicity,' said Claude Gueant, head of the cabinet in an interview in Le Monde. 'In that way, he shows a certain degree of modernity.'

Unlike most of France's political elite, Mr Sarkozy did not graduate from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. The son of a Hungarian immigrant, he was brought up by a single mother in a Paris suburb. He trained as a lawyer, working part-time selling flowers and ice cream. From his days as a young mayor in a wealthy Paris suburb to heading the Finance Ministry, Mr Sarkozy's political career has been driven by an unflinching will to succeed.

Over the last two years, he has worked relentlessly, portraying himself as a moderniser of old-fashioned and stagnant France and the saviour of the French right.

As minister of the interior, he pushed down crime rates when security was a main concern in France. He clamped down on prostitution and begging, and introduced unpopular measures to reduce drink-driving.

Heading the Finance Ministry, he has challenged France's work laws and the hotly debated 35-hour working week. To fill France's gaping deficit, he plans to freeze public spending in the state budget next year, an unpopular measure in many ministries.

While previous governments shied away from selling off state-owned companies, he reduced state ownership of France Telecom. He prepared the electricity and gas sectors for partial sell-off. In May, he secured Euro2.5 billion (HK$23.5 billion) from the European Union to rescue Alstom, France's high-speed TGV train manufacturers. 'The French are asking themselves if politics any longer has any point,' Mr Sarkozy explained in an interview in the Financial Times last June. 'I want to show them that soft growth, high unemployment and disinvestment are not facts to be fatalistically accepted. I believe in political will.'

But what perhaps fascinates the French most about Mr Sarkozy is his bitter rivalry with Mr Chirac.

The French president has never forgiven the man who was once his protege, for backing his rival, Edouard Balladur, in the 1995 general elections. Ever since, Mr Chirac has been trying to sideline Mr Sarkozy. In his latest attempt to curb Mr Sarkozy's influence, Mr Chirac declared it was impossible to combine a government position and party leadership. Against his own will, Mr Sarkozy will have to leave the Finance Ministry in November after only a few months in office.

But once head of the UMP, Mr Sarkozy's bid for the top is far from won. On leaving the Finance Ministry he will be stripped of his main assets: responding swiftly to voter concerns and being omnipresent. He will have a difficult job keeping up his popularity leading up to the general elections.

'The next three years will deprive Sarkozy of his window to the public' said Francois Miquet Marty, political researcher at the Louis Harris market research company. 'It's not the man in himself who is popular, it's his political style. He has a pragmatic link with the public, not an affectionate one. But it's that affection you need for a presidential campaign.'