2nd LD: French president appoints new PM

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday appointed incumbent Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve the new prime minister to replace Manuel Valls, as the latter has decided to quit the job, according to the Elysee.

Hollande has picked Cazeneuve to succeed Valls as the prime minister until the end of the Socialist Party's five year term next May, the Elysee said in a statement.

The newly-named prime minister is charged with forming a cabinet which will be unveiled later on Tuesday, it added.

Hollande has also accepted the resignation of Valls who launched a bid to seek for the Left nomination to book a ticket for presidential race, it added.

In a cabinet reshuffle in 2014, Cazeneuve, then a deputy minister in charge of budget, was nominated interior minister to replace Valls who was named chief of the Socialist government.

"(Cazeneuve) has the experience of the State. He knows very well the issues of security and the fight against terrorism, which is one of the government's priorities," a source close to the presidential office was quoted as saying by the local broadcaster Europe 1.

Valls announced his candidacy for the left primary in preparation for the 2017 presidential election on Monday in Evry, a commune in the suburb of Paris, proposing a new path for "an independent France uncompromising on its values." He presented his resignation to Hollande earlier Tuesday. Endi