French President Jacques Chirac strongly recommended Monday French small and medium-sized businesses to settle in China, hoping to double their quantity in three years.

In his presidential Elysee Palace, Chirac received Monday leaders of 17 small and medium-sized French businesses, with whom he will visit China from Oct. 8 to 12.

He declared that this trip has mainly an economic vocation, adding that economic ties between France and China are worthy being developed.

"My big ambition would be that the quantity of small and medium-sized businesses can be doubled in China" to 7,000 in 2007 from today's 3,700, he said, while economic ties between the two countries are always dominated by big contracts (energy, aeronautics, etc), different from Germany and Italy, whose small and medium-sized businesses are much better presented in China.