French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac on Thursday defended France's growth and deficit targets after the European Commission (EC) lowered its forecasts of the country's economic outlook on Wednesday.

"France has taken commitments. It will honor them particularly in reducing the public deficit," the minister stressed.

"Brussels does not take enough account of what we did. It does not take into account the budget law that we passed. It did not see that the finance bill could create hope for growth," he added in an interview with the local broadcaster Europe1.

The Socialists eyed to expand Europe's second-biggest economy by 0.8 percent next year after an estimated 0.3-percent growth this year. They also want to trim the public deficit to 3.0 percent of economic output in 2013 from an expected 4.5 percent this year.

However, The European Commission on Wednesday forecasted lower growth at 0.4 percent next year and expected the public gap at 3.5 percent from the gross domestic product (GDP).

"We do not ask for the indulgence but lucidity ... the Commission did not see this coming crisis. Maybe, it did not see the coming recovery," Cahuzac said.

Looking to 2013, the government's first budget, France's toughest budget in at least three decades, targets to add 37 billion euros (47.1 billion U.S. dollars) to the public treasury with high taxes on wealthy households and businesses. (1 euro = 1.273 U.S. dollar)