President Nicolas Sarkozy has brushed aside worries about China's human rights record to throw on a warm and lavish welcome for Hu, wooing investment and Chinese support for his agenda as the incoming president of the G20.

France and China signed 20 billion dollars in industrial contracts on Thursday at the start of Hu's three-day visit, with police trying to keep rights protestors away from the Chinese leader.

Nevertheless around 20 activists approached Hu as he arrived at the Arc de Triomphe to re-light the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, calling for jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo to be freed.

Police intervened rapidly to disperse the protestors who opened up white umbrellas with "Free Liu Xiaobo" printed on them and shouted the same slogan.

The award of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu enraged Beijing when it was announced last month, and Chinese officials have said his fate is not up for discussion during the French visit.

A new round of 15 contracts was signed Friday in arenas ranging from power to wine, including a 1.1 billion euro deal between telecommunications group Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

They were signed at business association Medef on Paris' chic Left Bank in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, at a ceremony attended by Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming and French Trade Minister Christine Lagarde.

In remarks calculated to reassure China about its export-driven economy, Lagarde branded protectionism "the most hideous monster" and called for "a sustained economic relationship founded on friendship and demand."

But she added that France would like to sell more to Chinese consumers.

"We're not necessarily very proud when we see that our trade deficit with China is the largest at 22 billion euros," she said.

After striking a deal to supply 102 airliners to Chinese firms worth 14 billion dollars, the boss of Airbus parent company EADS, Louis Gallois, said China's human rights "problem" could not be resolved by businesses.

"I don't think that we should resolve the problems that you mention, notably human rights, through business," Gallois said when asked by BFM radio about the lack of any public comment by Sarkozy on human rights in China.

"I don't see what commercial instrument one can use to resolve this kind of problem. I think that China is developing, evolving, as it opens up."

Alongside the trade contracts, Hu has thrown China's weight behind Sarkozy's goal of using France's upcoming presidency of the G20 group of the world's largest economies to reform the global financial system.

After next week's summit in South Korea, France will take on the year-long rotating G20 presidency, during which Sarkozy wants to push major international reforms, and China has given cautious backing to the French agenda.

French nuclear giant Areva has also signed a contract to supply 3.5 billion dollars' worth of uranium to Chinese power firm CNGPC.

France and China have had tense diplomatic ties in recent years, notably over French meetings with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, but they maintain important economic ties and relations have warmed since 2009.

Activists and the Socialist opposition complain France has kept human rights off the menu for the visit.

No joint news conference has been scheduled, an exceptional departure from state visit procedures that has been criticised by campaigners who want Hu to be pressed on the issue of human rights.

Hu was to meet French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in Paris before heading to the Riviera city of Nice for a working dinner with Sarkozy.

Hu heads to Portugal on Saturday.

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