The Associated Press
Monday, March 26, 2007; 9:07 PM

PARIS -- Nicolas Sarkozy resigned Monday as French interior minister to focus on his presidential bid, recalling his successes but also challenges, including violence by poor young minorities.

Sarkozy, the tough-talking candidate for the ruling conservative party, was replaced in the post by Francois Baroin, who was previously minister for overseas territories, the office of President Jacques Chirac said.

Most polls show Sarkozy with a narrow lead over Socialist Segolene Royal and center-right candidate Francois Bayrou before the two-round election on April 22 and May 6. Twelve candidates are running.

In his departure speech, Sarkozy sought to reach out to young minorities in France's troubled suburban housing projects by evoking his own background as the son of a Jewish Hungarian immigrant.

"Myself, French of mixed blood, I do not feel foreign to these youth of the projects of mixed origin," he said. "I respect these youths and that is why we must tell them the truth, that which we hid from them for too long. There is no future for them if they do not decide to commit themselves to build this future."

Sarkozy recalled the riots that raged through neglected suburbs nationwide in 2005, an explosion of anger largely by Arab and black youths _ many of them children of immigrants from France's former colonies _ over discrimination, unemployment and alienation from mainstream society.

Many accused Sarkozy of fueling anger in the suburbs with harsh comments about young troublemakers, but his ministry won praise from some quarters for handling the riots with no major bloodshed.