FACTBOX: Further portraits of incoming French ministers

(Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a slimline cabinet on Friday that included centrists, a popular left-wing maverick as well as members of the ruling conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party.

Here are brief portraits of the new team.

BRICE HORTEFEUX, 49, IMMIGRATION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

A banker's son, Hortefeux has been Sarkozy's closest friend and ally for more than 30 years, and is the only member of his innermost circle to make it to the cabinet.

He will have to turn into reality his friend's controversial election promise to create a new ministry devoted to controlling immigration and inculcating new arrivals with French values.

In the outgoing administration, Hortefeux was secretary of state for local government and served as Sarkozy's number two at the interior ministry. He is godfather to one of Sarkozy's children and his absolute loyalty is guaranteed.

RACHIDA DATI, 41, JUSTICE

Born to illiterate Algerian and Moroccan parents, Dati is the second of 12 children. She grew up on a poor housing project, selling cosmetics door-to-door in her teens before studying law at university.

Accounting studies secured her a job at French oil giant Elf and the Matra engineering group, where she studied for her MBA.

She trained as a magistrate from 1997-1999 and was drafted by Sarkozy into his interior ministry in 2002, where she worked on his crime prevention initiative and played point-person for his often fraught relations with France's volatile suburbs.

She is close to Sarkozy's wife Cecilia, who was instrumental in her appointment as spokeswoman for Sarkozy during the election campaign. Her studious, serious air was widely praised.

XAVIER BERTRAND, 42, WORK, SOCIAL RELATIONS AND SOLIDARITY

Another relative political novice, Xavier Bertrand, was first elected to parliament in 2002 and soon made a name for himself during debates on politically sensitive social reforms.

Having helped make the argument for an unpopular pensions reform in 2003, Bertrand was appointed junior minister for health insurance in 2004 during which he steered into law a tricky reform of the country's costly health insurance system.

Promoted to health minister in 2005, Bertrand was a late convert to the Sarkozy team. The rightist candidate made him his main spokesman "because he resembles the French".

CHRISTINE LAGARDE, 51, AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES

Lagarde was the first woman on the executive committee of international law firm Baker & McKenzie and then went on to head the committee. She speaks flawless English.

She was nominated trade minister in June 2005 where she was tasked with handling sensitive negotiations in world trade talks and defending France's subsidies for farmers. However, she has agreed that the EU subsidy system needs reforming.

She is an employment and anti-trust specialist and former synchronized swimming champion.

XAVIER DARCOS, 59, EDUCATION

A classics graduate with a doctorate in Latin and another in literature and humanities, Darcos began his career teaching students preparing entrance exams to the country's top universities, before becoming an education civil servant.

Advisor, then chief of staff to centre-right Education Minister Francois Bayrou from 1993-95, he advised Prime Minister Alain Juppe on education issues in the mid-1990s.

Schools minister in 2002 before being sidelined to overseas cooperation and development, he was axed in a 2005 reshuffle.

Darcos is mayor of the southwestern town of Perigueux and author of several books, including on the history of French literature and the dramatist Prosper Merimee.

VALERIE PECRESSE, 39, HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Spokeswoman for the UMP party since 2004, Pecresse will be the youngest minister and faces one of the most sensitive tasks -- reforming the highly politicized universities.

She went to the HEC business school and the prestigious ENA graduate school and is a deputy for a smart Paris suburb. She was an advisor in the Elysee from 1998 to 2002 before getting a place in the Sarkozy team.

CHRISTINE ALBANEL, 51, CULTURE, COMMUNICATION, GOVERNMENT SPOKESWOMAN

The president of the Chateau of Versailles is an old friend of Sarkozy. They met in the beginning of the 1990s in a Chirac team. She remained faithful to Chirac while relations between Sarkozy and the outgoing president worsened.

ROSELYNE BACHELOT-NARQUIN, 60, HEALTH, YOUTH AND SPORTS

In June 2004 she was elected European deputy for a western region in France and is deputy secretary of the ruling UMP party. She was environment minister from May 2002 to March 2004. She was a spokesman for Chirac's 2002 election campaign.

CHRISTINE BOUTIN, 63, HOUSING, CITIES

A UMP deputy who ran for president in 2002, scoring 1.19 percent in the first round ballot. She considered a run for the 2007 election but then rallied to Sarkozy. She became well-known for her opposition to the PACS law, that gives unmarried and gay couples certain legal rights in common with married couples. Boutin said the government should not encourage homosexuality.

See separate profiles of FRANCOIS FILLON, prime minister, JEAN-LOUIS BORLOO, minister of economic strategy and BERNARD KOUCHNER, foreign minister

See penpix of other ministers on