As the mercury climbed above 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) in parts of France during the past two days, Health Minister Xavier Bertrand Wednesday released the new heatwave plan including measures to bolster emergency services and to care for elderly people living on their own.

The plan also released an extra 26 million euros (31.5 million dollars) for supplementary hours for nurses working in people's homes and to recruit temporary staff in retirement homes.

The minister has put in place a level three heatwave alert, under the four level emergency plan, in the central eastern Rhone region and level two in seven other regions of the country.

French meteorologists have warned there is a probability of a hot summer this year with temperatures predicted to be on average two degrees above normal.

An estimated 30,000 people died in Europe during the 2003 heatwave with 14,847 deaths in France, the majority elderly, between the August 4 and 18.

During the heatwave temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsiusduring the day and remained high during the evenings.

Emergency services were overwhelmed during the disaster, forced to leave dying patients on stretchers in the corridors of hospitals.

Funeral parlours could also not cope, particularly in the Paris region where bodies had to be stored in refrigerated trucks.

There was a subsequent public outcry about the government's slow response to the disaster.

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