The walkout by civil service workers coincided with student protests over greater autonomy at universities and the seventh day of strikes by public transport workers that have disrupted train and bus services nationwide.

The strike widens what has been the most-disruptive stoppage since 1995 as unions protest a plan to align transport worker pensions with the rest of the country. The walkouts pose the biggest challenge to Sarkozy's efforts to keep campaign promises to deregulate labor and pensions. His approval rating fell 5 points this month to 51 percent, the lowest since he took office in May, a CSA survey showed yesterday.

"The climate is marked by worry about worsening strikes and doubts about the president's ability to solve the country's biggest problems,'' Stephane Rozes, a director at pollster CSA, said in a statement yesterday.

Air-traffic controllers, mail workers at La Poste, weathermen at Meteo France and Bank of France employees are among public sector employees walking off the job today. Strikers plan demonstrations in Paris and other French cities. Unions are seeking to defend civil servants' standard of living, said Jean-Marc Canon, a representative of the Confederation Generale du Travail union.

Transport Strike

Sarkozy's budget includes cuts in civil service jobs by 22,900 next year to curb spending and reduce the deficit to 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. The government said last month it will spend an extra 230 million euros ($337 million) to boost the pay of some public-sector workers. About 20 percent of France's 5 million civil servants will benefit from the plan.

Transport unions said yesterday they're willing to start talks on Sarkozy's plan to roll back their pension privileges. The reform would require them to work 40 years instead of 37.5 before getting a full pension.

The CGT, UNSA and SUD, along with other unions, said they'd take part in talks on Nov. 21 with management of state-owned railway SNCF, and possibly with government representatives.

"If SNCF's management wants to advance this meeting, the railway workers are ready,'' Christian Mahieux, the union leader at SNCF for SUD-Rail, said in an interview yesterday.

Disruptions

Transport workers are among 500,000 state employees who escaped the first round of pension changes for the 5 million people employed by the public sector in 2003.

"I believe there are no more reasons for services to be blocked,'' Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in a statement late yesterday. "This strike represents a minority within the companies and an extreme minority in the country. I am calling on each one's responsibility. The negotiations are about to start, service has to resume progressively and users' rights have to be respected.''

RATP, the operator running Paris's 16 metro lines, commuters trains and buses said traffic will be ``very disrupted'' today, with one out of four or five metros on 14 of the lines and almost no trains to Charles de Gaulle airport.

SNCF, the national railway company said 330 out of 700 high-speed trains will run and the regional traffic will remain very disrupted.

Counting Costs

RATP estimates the strike's cost at 24 million euros, Pierre Mongin, the head of the company told RTL radio on Nov. 18. Anne-Marie Idrac, president of the SNCF said the cost for her company after 5 days of strikes was above 100 million euros.

It's very difficult to assess the cost of the strike, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said yesterday in a press conference. She estimated the cost at about 300 to 400 million euros a day, said her press officer, declining to be identified.

The SNCF strike may extend into Nov. 21, said Daniel Lapluie the deputy secretary general for the UNSA union's railway workers' branch.

"You don't just stop a strike that works well,'' he said over the telephone yesterday.

CGT, the biggest union at Electricite de France SA and Gaz de France SA, called for a ``day of action'' today.

"It won't be a full strike day for utilities workers,'' Claude Pommery, a representative of CGT, said over the telephone. "I have no information on whether there will or will not be power cuts.''

French university students continued to disrupt more than a third of the nation's campuses as of yesterday. Thirty-five universities out of the country's 82 faced disruptions. Students will demonstrate, joining teachers in the civil servants' strike said Juliette Griffond, the spokeswoman for the Unef, the biggest students' union.