The panel represents the latest official probe set up by French authorities to look into why France's respected health care system failed to prevent the deaths and to identify what President Jacques Chirac has already called "shortcomings" in its response.

The 30-member parliamentary commission intends to examine the actions of officials and agencies during the heatwave, which covered France and much of Europe in the first half of August, and to apportion blame if necessary.

Up to now, only one official -- Lucien Abenheim, then the country's surgeon general -- has resigned over the disaster. Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, though under fire, has kept his job despite initially downplaying the gravity of the heatwave deaths.

The opposition Socialist Party has kept the pressure on the government, saying that its tardy and inept handling of the crisis made the death toll grow.

But Chirac's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) has fought back, saying the intensity of the hot weather caught the whole country off-guard.

It has also blamed the 35-hour working week introduced by the Socialists for reducing August staff levels in hospitals to skeleton standards, and insisted that families abandoning elderly relatives -- the segment of the population worst-hit by the heatwave -- were also responsible.

The parliament's political parties are to present their candidates for the commission, which is to be presided over by a Socialist and whose official recorder will be a UMP member. It is expected to run over six months, with its report due by early April.

TERRA.WIRE