PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - France and China are planning a series of high-level meetings in the coming months aimed at improving ties following months of tension over Tibet, French officials said on Tuesday.
French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said she would visit China next month, while Prime Minister Francois Fillon will make the trip before the end of the year and the government number two, Jean-Louis Borloo, will fly out in November.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the Shanghai Expo, which starts next May, a presidential source said earlier this week and Lagarde announced that Chinese President Hu Jintao was also expected to come to Paris.
Relations between the two countries have been strained for the past two years following outspoken criticism in France of China's handling of Tibet, and ministers welcomed the forthcoming flurry of diplomatic activity.
"It's very clearly a strong signal as a series of visits have been announced," Lagarde told a news conference.
"Each of these meetings constitute an opportunity to deepen historical ties of friendship between our countries and give them a modern, economic and cultural dimension," she added.
French business chiefs have expressed concern in private over prickly diplomatic relations with China, which soured last year after human rights and pro-Tibet activists brought chaos to the streets of Paris during an Olympic torch relay in the city.
Ties worsened further when Sarkozy met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in December and there was anger in Beijing again this year when the Socialist mayor of Paris made the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of the capital.
The Chinese government calls the Dalai Lama a reactionary who seeks to split off nearly a quarter of the land mass of the People's Republic of China.
Although Sarkozy promised to promote human rights when he took office in 2007, he has also been eager to nurture trade ties. China was France's eighth largest export market according to 2007 trade data and the fifth largest importer. (Writing by Sophie Taylor)