Former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has tried to put soured Sino-French ties back on the track by conceding the Tibet issue is China's internal affair.

He told Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing yesterday that France did not intend to hurt China on the Tibet issue. Paris "sticks" to the one-China policy and attaches "great importance" to improving the Sino-French comprehensive strategic partnership.

France "is keen to take concrete steps to revive trust between the two countries", too, he said.

Raffarin arrived in Beijing on Sunday on a weeklong trip seeking to help mend relations two months after French President Nicolas Sarkozy angered China by meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Wen told Raffarin that China was not responsible for the soured relations. "France should take concrete steps and reply positively to China's core concerns."

China cancelled a high-level meeting with the European Union (EU) after Sarkozy met with the Dalai Lama. France held the rotating EU presidency at the time.

Also, France was not on Wen's itinerary when he visited Europe recently.

Raffarin said France wanted to cooperate with China to fight the global financial crisis, the greatest problem facing the international community.

"The two countries share the same standpoint on solving the problem," Raffarin said. "Both countries are hoping for more effective supervision of the global financial system."

Analysts said a worsening economy and large-scale strikes in France had prompted the country to repair its ties with China, one of the few markets that still has a high growth.

The financial crisis has forced the French leadership to target "big contracts in fields such as aviation and nuclear power with emerging markets" like China, said Wang Zhaohui, of the China Institute of Contemporary International Affairs.

Two days before Raffarin reached Beijing, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon had said in Paris that France and the rest of the world "needed China to get out of recession".

A French analyst, however, questioned the effectiveness of Raffarin's visit. Helene Le Bail, of the French Institute of International Relations, said Raffarin is visiting China on "personal" grounds this time, instead of acting as Sarkozy's envoy.

Raffarin is not a member of Sarkozy's decision-making team, Le Bail said.

Raffarin visited China 10 months ago as Sarkozy's special envoy amid rising anti-French sentiment stirred by disruptions to the Olympic torch relay and bestowal of honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama by Paris.

Raffarin and his 15-member delegation, most of them lawmakers, will leave for Hunan and Guangdong provinces today.

(China Daily February 11, 2009)