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Peugeot to cut pension packages-paper

PARIS, March 19 (Reuters) - French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen is to cut the size of its executive pension packages, French daily Les Echos reported, months after public criticism forced former chief executive Philippe Varin to turn down his pension.

The struggling carmaker's supervisory board has approved new methodology that cuts the amount provisioned by the company for executive pension packages to 16 million euros ($22.26 million) for 2013 versus 70 million for 2012, Les Echos reported in a pre-released version of its Thursday edition.

A Peugeot spokesman confirmed that its rules for calculating pension packages were being changed but did not comment on the figures cited by Les Echos. "We will be publishing proposals to be put to shareholders for the implementation of a new methodology for pension packages," he said.

Peugeot, which is raising 3 billion euros in a rescue deal with Chinese partner Dongfeng and the French state, is in the midst of a 1.5 billion-euro savings drive under the leadership of new CEO Carlos Tavares and incoming chairman Louis Gallois.

Peugeot's previous CEO Philippe Varin said in November he would turn down his pension package, for which the company had set aside 21 million euros, because of the public backlash it had sparked in France.

($1 = 0.7189 Euros) (Reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by Andrew Callus)