PARIS: France’s government welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday with promises of a new beginning in an old relationship, starting with investments to boost Iran’s flagging economy crippled by decades of sanctions over its nuclear activities.

Rouhani, whose visit was also met with protests, decried the sanctions, saying history has shown that they “never worked” and said the nuclear deal that led to the lifting of sanctions this month can serve as a model for solutions in other crises, notably in the Middle East.

“Today, we must use the positive atmosphere for a new elan,” he told a group of French business leaders.

About 20 agreements will be signed after a meeting between Rouhani and President Francois Hollande. PSA Peugeot Citroen announced a joint venture with Iran Khodro to produce latest-generation vehicles in Tehran by the end of 2017.

France rolled out military honors at the site of Napoleon’s tomb for the Iranian leader at the start of his second and final day in France in an otherwise low-key visit.

The historic outreach trip faced some strains in a reminder of the complexities confronting all sides despite the French welcome mat.

France has asked its European Union partners to consider new sanctions on Iran for its recent ballistic missile tests, officials have told The Associated Press. That highlights continued suspicions between Iran and the West despite the recent agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of earlier sanctions.

EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Catherine Ray told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that “such a request was never submitted to the EU and it was not discussed” at the latest EU foreign ministers meeting. However, such diplomatic proposals are normally broached first on an informal level among EU partners, and then go through a bureaucratic process before being formally tabled at EU-wide meetings.

Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, with headquarters outside Paris, held a demonstration, and 61 lawmakers signed an open letter to Hollande, condemning Iran’s human rights record, with executions on the rise, and what it called its “strategy of chaos” in the Middle East.

An activist hung from a fake noose off a Paris bridge next to a huge banner reading “Welcome Rouhani, Executioner of Freedom.”