Paris, April 2 (Reuters): Senior figures in France’s conservative party put out compromise feelers to students and unions over a controversial youth jobs law today, pushing to the sidelines the Prime Minister who introduced the measure.

Leaders of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) appointed emissaries to talk to union and student leaders who have called a new national one-day stoppage and street protests on Tuesday to demand withdrawal of the First Job Contract (CPE).

The CPE, launched by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin as a way to promote hiring by allowing employers to summarily fire employees under 26 within two years, became law today.

But in an attempt to quell two months of sometimes-violent protests that have evoked memories of last autumn’s riots in poor suburbs, President Jacques Chirac said on Friday that no CPE contracts should be signed until the law had been softened.

UMP deputy Dominique Paille said UMP leaders in the two chambers of parliament would “engage in dialogue and negotiations with the unions... without taboos”.

Chirac’s speech appeared to be aimed at keeping Villepin, his protege, in his post while deflating Tuesday’s day of protest with an offer of compromise. But the angry union response to Chirac’s address, and a poll indicating that 62 per cent of the large audience who watched it were unconvinced, suggest a crisis that brought over a million onto the streets will rumble on.

The protesters have rejected any talks on a “CPE-lite” and reaffirmed the demand to scrap it. As a carrot, Sarkozy allies hint that the UMP is ready to go beyond the solution Chirac offered of halving the trial period and forcing employers to justify dismissal.