PARIS, Oct 1, 2008 (AFP) - The French government will present a bill in the coming weeks to tighten the screws on chief executives who walk away from their posts with 'golden parachute' payoffs, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

President Nicolas Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting held against the backdrop of the global credit crunch that he 'wanted the very quick adoption of a text that restricts the system of golden parachutes,' Luc Chatel told reporters.

'He wants this to be outlined very concretely in a bill in the coming weeks,' he said.

Sarkozy campaigned for the presidency last year on a promise to outlaw golden parachutes after an outcry over a multi-million-euro payment given to French aerospace executive Noel Forgeard, of Airbus parent company EADS.

Details of Forgeard's 8.5 million euro (11.5 million dollar) severance package were released after Airbus announced it would cut 10,000 jobs across Europe as part of a turnaround plan.

First used in the United States in the 1980s, golden parachutes were designed to attract top-notch chief executives to turn around troubled multinationals and the practice later became widespread in Europe.

Sarkozy has repeatedly said chief executives should not be rewarded with large sums of money if they fail to keep their companies afloat.

The government spokesman said he was 'shocked' to learn that two executives from Dexia bank will receive payoffs after the French, Belgian and Luxembourg governments stepped in with a 6.4-billion-euro rescue package.

'At a time when the financial system is in trouble, in particular Dexia, this type of practice is particularly shocking in the eyes of the French,' said Chatel.

The departure of Dexia executives was a condition set by the French government for shoring up the Franco-Belgian banking group, which lends heavily to French municipalities.

Dexia CEO Axel Miller is to receive 3.7 million euros in severance payments, according to bank documents.