Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives in France today on a two-nation trip to Europe to defuse trade tensions and to discuss French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ambitious agenda for his G20 presidency. Hu's three-day state visit to France, after which he travels to Portugal, comes at a time when EU leaders have closed ranks with Washington in urging China to appreciate its yuan currency more quickly. China hopes this week's visit, accompanied by a slew of contracts with Chinese firms, can ease those tensions ahead of a G20 leaders summit in South Korea next week which will focus on global economic imbalances. In turn, Sarkozy's government, which takes up the G20 baton after the Seoul summit, wants to build common ground for its ambitious agenda of reforming the global monetary system. The visit caps a steady rehabilitation of Sino-French ties, which soured in 2008 when Sarkozy met the exiled Dalai Lama and slammed China's record in Tibet, prompting Chinese citizens to call for a boycott of French goods and companies. France has since carefully avoided antagonising Beijing, scarcely reacting to last month's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.