France is "dancing on a volcano" of chronic state overspending and debt, its new prime minister warned in his first speech to parliament detailing his roadmap for reform.

Edouard Philippe's technical address to the National Assembly contrasted with president Emmanuel Macron's lofty, long-winded vision of how to revamp France at the palace of Versailles on Monday.

Outlining a raft of planned reforms, the Right-wing Mr Philippe, an amateur boxer and part-time crime writer, announced ambitions plans for tax cuts and public spending cuts - key, Mr Macron believes, to convincing Berlin to embark on European Union reform.

Addressing the National Assembly, where Mr Macron's République en Marche! (Republic on the Move, or REM) party holds an absolute majority, Mr Philippe warned that the public debt now totalled €2.1 trillion (£1.84), nearly the equivalent of an entire year's economic output.