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