Pierre Louette re-elected chairman of AFP

Louette, 45, who has been a government advisor as well as worked in the television and multimedia industries, took the helm of AFP in 2005 saying he was determined to modernise the agency.

During his first term he drastically improved AFP's finances, bolstered its multimedia products and oversaw the launching of the international AFPTV service.

The start of his second term will be dominated by the planning of a major technology investment programme, a review of the agency's founding statutes and further moves to adapt the agency to the information revolution.

Louette is a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration who served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Edouard Balladur in the 1990s.

He then worked for France Televisions, set up an Internet publicity agency specialised in new media and joined luxury products giant LVMH's multimedia arm.

Louette joined AFP in 2003 as its director general and on taking the top job made a priority of boosting multimedia products such as the Internet news feed and services for mobile phones, and has also struck partnerships with outside concerns.

But in his upcoming mandate he faces the touchy task of reforming the agency's legal status, enshrined in a 1957 law.

The legislation, drafted to guarantee the agency's editorial independence, gave AFP a unique status. It has no capital or shareholders, cannot run up a loss and is run by a board made up of its main French clients.

The French government has asked Louette to modernise AFP's statutes and he is to make recommendations, which could include turning it into a foundation or finding a core stakeholder. Louette has insisted that any change would have to maintain guarantees for the editorial independence of the world's oldest news agency, established in 1835, which has bureaux in 110 countries and thousands of subscribers around the globe.