France will probably miss its target of reducing the public sector deficit to 3 percent of economic output this year, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday.

Asked whether the state audit body had been correct in predicting on Tuesday that France would miss the target, Fabius replied: "I think it's likely, and that means we must both avoid squeezing what remains of growth while being responsible and making sure the word savings is part of our vocabulary."

The government has so far said it is determined to hit its deficit goal, despite the weakness of the economy.

(Reporting by Yann Le Guernigou and Catherine Bremer; editing by Patrick Graham)