'I think they are very useful because they can bring you sometimes solutions especially when you have to face a difficult financial crisis like the one we have now... after the subprime crisis,' Jean-Francois Cope told reporters in Singapore.

'The only thing is that there is a debate in the public opinion on the question of sovereign funds.'

'We need... more information and more transparency to make sure of the compatibility between these investments and the strategic activities of each country.'

Mr Cope, president of the UNMP Group in the National Assembly, spoke to reporters while in Singapore to open a 'French corner' in the National Library containing 1,000 books by French authors, ranging from the philosophical writings of Rene Descartes to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

Mr Cope, a former budget minister, said he also held talks Friday with executives of Temasek Holdings, one of two global investment vehicles of the Singapore government, and the discussions covered the so-called sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).

Increased scrutiny
This massive pool of money, many of them coming from Asia and the oil-rich Middle East, have come under increasing scrutiny after they bought stakes in major American companies.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) of the United Arab Emirates and Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) are two of the world's biggest funds.

ADIA invested 7.5 billion dollars (S$10 billion) in US banking giant Citigroup in late November followed by GIC which snapped up a 6.8 billion dollar shareholding in the financial group this year.

Temasek, which manages a global portfolio of about 110 billion dollars, invested 4.4 billion dollars in Merrill Lynch in December.

Mr Cope said Temasek officials were 'extremely open' during the talks and were 'perfectly aware of the fact that they need to give more information about their goals, their strategy'.

He said he also invited Temasek executives to Paris to discuss the issue of state-investment funds with French congressmen.

'I told them that we need more... explanation, more information... Most of the congressmen don't really know what are sovereign funds. They (Temasek) said they are okay in principle, so maybe once we can organise such a meeting.'

Temasek has said that its investments are purely commercial. -- AFP