France's Macron expected to name new PM on Thursday

French President Emmanuel Macron will likely name a new prime minister on Thursday, a government source told AFP on Wednesday, almost a week into a political crisis sparked by Michel Barnier's ouster as premier.

The nomination will come "more likely when (Macron) returns" in the evening from a day-long visit to Poland, the source added.

Macron had vowed on Tuesday afternoon to name a new government chief "within 48 hours", party chiefs who met him said.

Tuesday's round-table talks at the president's Elysee Palace office were aimed at finding a way forwards following last week's historic no-confidence vote that toppled Barnier's government.

The bosses of the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), who joined forces to oust Barnier, were not invited.

Macron is under huge pressure to cobble together a broad alliance and form a government that can survive a no-confidence vote and pass a budget for next year, in a bid to limit political and economic turmoil.

He had hoped to prise the Socialists, Greens and Communists away from their election pact with the LFI but their bosses insist a new prime minister should be named from their ranks.

France's hung parliament — split roughly evenly between the left, Macron's centrists and conservatives, and the RN — means some natural adversaries must bury or at least suspend their differences for a government to endure.

  Cabinet meeting 

Macron's centrist ally Francois Bayrou, a former justice minister acquitted in a trial this year on charges of embezzling EU funds, has been tipped by many as a possible contender for prime minister.

However, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure spoke out against the candidacy of Bayrou,...