French judges will go on strike next week to protest against planned justice reforms which they say will put further pressure on an already overstretched courts and prisons system as well as weakening judicial independence.

Magistrates, prison guards, lawyers and other justice system officials plan to rally outside the central court building in Paris on March 9 in a rare demonstration of unity, the main unions said in a statement.

The planned demonstration is the latest episode in a long-running battle over the future of the creaking French justice system, which all sides agree needs reforms but details of which have caused bitter disagreement.

Magistrates and court officials say they are already overworked and underfunded and conditions in France's badly overcrowded prisons have steadily deteriorated in the face of continual cost cutting.

In a statement, 17 unions said that starving the justice system of funds would stifle its independence and they also took aim at a plan to scrap independent "juges d'instruction" or examining magistrates.

Examining magistrates have handled a string of high profile cases including investigations in the 1990s that dogged late President Francois Mitterrand and his successor Jacques Chirac and exposed corruption at the state-controlled oil company Elf.

But the government says the position, created in the 19th century, hands too much power to unregulated individual judges. It wants to give responsibility for launching prosecutions to state prosecutors who answer to the justice ministry.

The unions said the move "appeared clearly intended by political authorities to control cases that were embarrassing and sensitive for the government".

Apart from scrapping examining magistrates, the government wants to shut many smaller local courts and prisons in favour of bigger regional centres to improve efficiency, a move critics say will increase strains on judges and prison guards.

A bill introduced in parliament would also reduce time limits bringing to court crimes involving the misuse of company assets, which have in the past included some of France's most sensitive and high profile business and political cases.

Squeezed by mounting public debt, France has limited spending and plans not to replace one in two civil servants who retire, a move which has angered public sector workers.

Reuters