RABAT -- New Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou has outlined a five-year program to fight poverty and unemployment, praised by analysts as a "declaration of economic war".

Jettou said his government will focus on economic development, education and housing. Boosting the North African country's weak infrastructure and restructuring Moroccan firms are also priorities, he told Parliament.

"It's a real declaration of economic war and the best ever program by a Moroccan government," a senior financial analyst said on Friday.

"The program is balanced and gives great importance to the citizen. There is a clear will to deliver: no theories but clear actions, with figures and deadlines," Mohamed Lahlou, vice-chairman of employers group CGEM, told Reuters.

A 57-year-old technocrat with no party affiliation, Jettou was appointed last month by King Mohammed and leads a coalition government of 31 ministers. Presenting his agenda he recalled that the king, in a speech to parliament last month, "insisted on the real concerns of today's morocco, namely productive employment, economic development, appropriate education and decent housing."

Faced with a 2012 deadline to abolish trade barriers between Morocco and the European Union, Morocco will spend $237 million to relaunch a plan to upgrade firms' productivity and efficiency to help them compete with European counterparts, he said.

Planned infrastructure projects included construction of a $1.0-billion Mediterranean port in Tangiers, extension of motorway and railway networks, and a water conservation venture.