Ex-French PM Cresson has cancer

Cresson was the first woman prime minister in France

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Edith Cresson, the former French prime minister, says she is suffering from cancer. Cresson, 65, announced in a New Year's greeting letter to the town of Chatellerault, where she was mayor from 1983 to 1997, that she first learned of the disease in 1997.

"I underwent two serious operations in November 1997 and then in July 1998, as well as several sessions of chemotherapy," she said in the letter, published on Tuesday on the website of the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur.

"It was on my hospital bed that I learned I had won the battle, at least for the moment," she wrote. She gave no further details.

Cresson, a long-time ally of late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, became France's first woman prime minister in 1991 but left the post less than a year later amid accusations of poor management.

While European commissioner for science, research and education from 1995 to 1999, she steadfastly refused to resign despite mounting charges of cronyism and mismanagement. The whole commission was finally forced to resign in March 1999.

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Profile of Edith Cresson
Le Nouvel Observateur
The European Commission

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