France's Hollande gives Sarkozy terse sendoff

After a bruising election battle, Sarkozy was gracious in defeat, dropping all invective when he conceded within minutes of the May 6 result and inviting Hollande to accompany him at a ceremony two days later to commemorate the end of World War Two.

Yet the Socialist newcomer kept it to the bare minimum when he saw the outgoing conservative off with a brisk handshake after a 40-minute private meeting to pass on state secrets.

In a remark that seemed squarely aimed at Sarkozy's pushy and hyperactive style, Hollande said in his maiden address that he would run a "dignified" and "sober" presidency.

In past handovers, the incoming president has lingered over the handshake with his predecessor and taken a few moments to see him off from the Elysee Palace courtyard.

Back in 2007, the more tactile Sarkozy gave his predecessor Jacques Chirac a friendly departing pat and applauded as he left the premises. When Chirac won in 1995, he gave Socialist Francois Mitterrand a warm send-off that expressed admiration for a skillful veteran adversary.

In his speech, Hollande, the first Socialist leader in 17 years, listed the achievements of all other Fifth Republic presidents from General Charles de Gaulle to Chirac. But his only mention of the Sarkozy was to wish him luck in the future.

A television commentator called the perfunctory comment "the union minimum".

During the campaign, Hollande mostly bit his tongue as Sarkozy repeatedly sniped at him, calling the challenger "useless" and saying he lied "from morning to night".

But he betrayed simmering anger when he described Sarkozy in an off-record chat with journalists as a "nasty piece of work".

Their mutual dislike was clear in a televised debate three days before the crucial runoff, in which Hollande mocked Sarkozy for having no other defense than to call him a liar.

On Tuesday, Hollande seemed to play on criticism of Sarkozy as all-controlling and impulsive when he told guests at the handover ceremony that he would run a different presidency.

"I will set the priorities but I will not decide for everyone, on everything and everywhere," the new president said.