French president struggles in tax crisis All members of France's socialist government have been given a week to publish full details of their wealth as President François Hollande struggles to overcome a damaging scandal over a secret Swiss bank account held by his former budget minister. In a sign of the acute sensitivity surrounding the issue, Pierre Moscovici, finance minister, signalled to Jack Lew, US Treasury secretary, that he would have to cancel a meeting they were due to hold in Paris on Tuesday. French officials later said they were trying to reschedule the appointment with Mr Lew, but that it would have to be fitted around Mr Moscovici's attendance at a government question session in the National Assembly, where ministers are expected to come under renewed attack over the tax fraud scandal. The finance minister has been under sustained fire from the centre-right opposition UMP party since Jérôme Cahuzac, budget minister under Mr Moscovici until mid-March, admitted last week that he had lied about the 20-year existence of his Swiss account. Mr Moscovici has denied charges that he did not take strong enough action to uncover the truth after allegations were first made against Mr Cahuzac in December last year. The scandal has floored Mr Hollande, already suffering record low approval ratings, and threatens to undermine his efforts to tackle a stalled economy and rising unemployment. In a bid to regain the initiative, Jean-Marc Ayrault, prime minister, announced that the government would draw up later this month new legislation to stiffen laws on ethical standards for elected officials and the campaign against tax fraud and tax havens. In the meantime, he said all ministers would be required to supply by April 15 a statement of their wealth and assets, to be published online by the government. "There are many countries which already do this, including the Nordic countries and the US," Mr Ayrault said. It is a way of restoring confidence. The government is hoping it can ride out the crisis but the political climate remains febrile. Laurent Fabius, foreign minister, was forced to deny publicly that he also had a Swiss account after a newspaper published a rumour to that effect for which it admitted it had no evidence. Mr Lew and his team were already on the ground in Brussels for meetings with EU leaders when they heard that Mr Moscovici would likely have to cancel. The new US Treasury secretary is pressing European countries with healthy economies - such as Germany - to generate more demand in order to help the wider eurozone out of recession. That stance is well aligned with the position of Mr Moscovici and his government. Mr Lew was travelling to Frankfurt for a meeting with European Central Bank president Mario Draghi on Monday and then to Berlin to meet German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "I was particularly interested in our European partners" plans to strengthen sources of demand at a time of rising unemployment," he said after meeting EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy.