France's defence budget has been spared the severe cuts expected to be enforced in other areas of government spending next year, defence ministry sources said on Thursday.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, the defence minister in the new Socialist government that was elected in June, has been allocated 31.4 billion euros to spend in 2013, only marginally less than the 31.5 billion figure made available for 2012, aides said.

The new administration has set itself the ambitious target of reducing France's budget deficit to three percent of GDP by the end of 2013. It currently stands at 4.5 percent.