* Bank of France chief says reform drive can create 1 mln jobs
* Key points of Hollande's reform drive remain to be resolved (Adds details, Axa chief, background)
PARIS Jan 16 (Reuters) - France can revive its competitiveness and growth if it rapidly pushes through with a reform drive proposed by President Francois Hollande, its central bank governor said on Thursday.
The Socialist leader pledged on Tuesday to cut the charges companies pay to fund family benefits, easing by 2017 at the latest their tax burden by 30 billion euros ($41 billion) in return for ramping up hiring.
The plan met with a cautious welcome by companies wary of getting tied down with specific hiring targets while Hollande also left the financing of the tax break an open question. Implementation will now be negotiated in a series of meetings between the government and business leaders.
"The pact proposed by the President is exactly what is needed to get growth going," Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer said on Europe 1 radio.
"It has got to be done quickly, the decisions that have been taken need to implemented, we can't be reluctant, we've got to be bold and we've got to trust companies, investors and entrepreneurs," Noyer added.
Noyer, who is a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said the reform could bear fruit as soon as this year and could create or save at least one million jobs while it is implemented.
But many key details remain to be hammered out in the coming months, which will be made all the more difficult by campaigning for municipal elections in March, in which Hollande's Socialist Party risks losses.
Hollande said the charges would be accompanied by at least 50 billion euros in spending cuts over 2015-1017 period. His aides have said only 49 billion euros in cuts have been confirmed for now and that more will have to be found.
"We will probably have to go further than 50 billion euros in spending cuts and 30 billion euros in cuts on corporate charges," the head of French insurance giant Henri de Castries said in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper.
"But the volume is large enough that the priority is now the pace and the application of the pact," he added.
Noyer said that France risked falling behind the rest of the euro zone without stepping up reforms that other euro zone countries had taken under the pressure of their debt crises.
He also said that the European Central Bank was prepared if needed to take additional action to support growth in the euro zone, though he did elaborate. ($1 = 0.7356 euros) (Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Mark John)
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