COURBEVOIE (France) - FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday repeated his intention to ease restrictions on Sunday trading and said he personally authorised the opening of shops during Michelle Obama's recent visit to Paris.

'We are going to deal with the problem before the summer,' said Mr Sarkozy at a roundtable discussion just outside Paris, ahead a parliamentary debate on the subject.

Members of the National Assembly, the French parliament's lower house, were due to examine a bill put foward by Sarkozy's ruling UMP party next week proposing Sunday trading in designated tourist zones.

'Is it normal that on a Sunday, when Madame Obama wants to go to the Paris shops with her daughters, that I have to make phone calls to have them open?' he said.

'We must be reasonable... Is it absolutely necessary that the shops are open at times and on days when people cannot do their shopping?' he said, adding that the city attracted 80 million tourists a year.

'It's not about saying that everyone is going to work on Sunday, I have never said that,' he added. -- AFP