Prime Minister Francois Fillon said today that France's credit rating downgrade had been expected and that his government was now prepared to make budgetary "adjustments" if necessary.

"This decision constitutes an alert which should neither be dramatised nor underestimated," Fillon said at a press conference called to address Friday's downgrade by Standard and Poor's rating agency.

He insisted that his government's budgetary measures to reduce debt were "sufficent" but that "when we have better visibility on our growth we may make adjustments."

Standard and Poor's cut France's top triple-A credit rating, which it has held since June 1975, by one notch to AA+.

The downgrade came just three months before President Nicolas Sarkozy -- who hosted crisis talks with his top economics ministers at the Elysee on Friday -- seeks reelection.

Sarkozy reportedly told allies last month: "If we lose the triple-A, I'm dead."