French Politician Sarkozy Visits U.S.

France's Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy gestures as he talks at think tank Bibliotheque Solvay in Brussels, Friday Sept. 8, 2006. Sarkozy, the man expected by many to be next president of France, on Friday outlined his vision of a radically overhauled European Union with streamlined institutions and EU-wide political parties, but without Turkey as a member. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (Geert Vanden Wijngaert - AP)

PARIS -- Presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, France's most unabashedly pro-American politician, sets off Saturday on a four-day visit to the United States _ something of a political gamble at home, where pockets of anger still simmer about Washington's foreign policy.

The interior minister, who is loved by France's mainstream right and loathed on the left, will visit New York and Washington on a trip timed for the commemorations of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

France's top cop was expected to discuss counterterrorism efforts with officials including New York police Commissioner Ray Kelly and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. He also was to meet Monday with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

According to polls, Sarkozy and Socialist former government minister Segolene Royal are the top likely contenders to succeed Jacques Chirac as president in an election next spring.

Some opponents have sought to land political blows against Sarkozy by linking him with the United States _ whose war in Iraq was immensely unpopular in France.

Chirac saw his poll numbers soar when he vocally opposed the war. While relations have improved since 2003, President Bush is still often criticized here over his handling of the war on terror.

Sharp-tongued former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, who is battling Royal for the Socialist Party nomination, has been among Sarkozy's fiercest critics, calling him "very free-market" and too "Atlanticist," and likening the minister to "an American Republican."

In a published interview earlier this year, Sarkozy praised Chirac's decision not to send French troops to Iraq, but cautioned that Paris and Washington should not have long-term disputes.

Sarkozy, beyond his ideological affinities for the United States, has lifted many ideas from the American political playbook: He is an avid capitalist; he favors affirmative action; he lauds the "social mobility" in America; and his "zero tolerance" policy about crime closely mimics that of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

In Sarkozy's new, best-selling book "Temoignage" ("Testimony"), he shot back at critics who have branded him as "Sarko l'Americain" for his alleged desire to scrap France's workplace protections.

"If I only had eyes for the American model" of government, Sarkozy wrote, "I would live in the United States. That is not the case."

He particularly criticized a lack of universal health care in the United States _ virtually a sacrosanct right in France.

But when asked by Le Figaro magazine in an interview last month about whether he was annoyed that he was considered "a friend of the Americans," Sarkozy replied: "That flatters me."

"Especially if they knew how much I struggle to speak proper English!"

At home, Sarkozy has been criticized for calling delinquents from heavily immigrant neighborhoods "scum," and calling for their areas to be cleaned up "with a power sprayer."

Many youths saw Sarkozy as their biggest foe during the three-week wave of rioting, car burnings and clashes between youths and police in those neighborhoods last October and November.

Lately, he has drawn fire by expelling dozens of illegal immigrant families from a massive squat outside Paris, and by deporting thousands of illegal immigrants _ some with children who have been in French schools for years.