French PM Manuel Valls vows to introduce Sunday shopping

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has told an audience in London's financial district that his drastic reform programme will extend to the introduction of Sunday shopping in Paris, and the major towns of France.

Valls is fighting to lift the French economy out of the doldrums, and may face a confrontation with the new European commission to tolerate a deficit that breaches EU limits.

Valls was in London to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron and persuade fellow EU leaders that he is trying to take the French economy on the path to structural reform, including an end to the 35-hour working week.

Describing it as "bad news to give you here in London", Valls said shops would open on Sundays in Paris and promised museums would be open seven days week.

He said he would use his time in power to transform the country. He also said he had accepted the apology from the managing director of British department store chain John Lewis who described France as sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat.

Valls pointed out that the French economy was the fifth largest in the world and second largest in Europe. Insisting his new Socialist government was pro-business, he said the top 75 per cent tax rate would be gone by January.