Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy drew strong criticism on Wednesday for failing to press the issue of human rights on a visit to Tunisia, the latest of many trips where he has been accused of putting money before morals.

Sarkozy swept to power a year ago pledging to put human rights at the heart of French foreign policy, but his dealings with countries like China and Libya, which have yielded numerous business deals, have led many to argue that promise was hollow.

On a three-day trip to Tunisia, Sarkozy said the country had made progress on rights and he had not come to give it a "lecture".

Tunisia is the Maghreb's most westernised state but rights groups accuse the government of muzzling the press and beating and jailing opponents. The authorities deny the accusations.

"One year on, the former candidate has watered down his views. After criticising (his predecessor) Jacques Chirac, who preferred to talk about human rights away from the television cameras, he now behaves the same way," said French daily Le Parisien, which is neither strongly for or against Sarkozy.

Sarkozy's trip to North Africa's wealthiest country, during which state-owned Tunis Air signed a deal to buy 19 Airbus planes for more than one billion euros, has followed a similar pattern to previous visits.

On a trip to China in November, Sarkozy oversaw the signing of a pact to sell 160 Airbus planes and an 8 billion euro deal for France's Areva to sell two nuclear reactors and fuel.

During the presidential campaign, Sarkozy said he opposed lifting a European Union arms embargo against China because Beijing had not made enough progress on human rights.

But on his trip to China, his team said he now agreed with Chirac that the embargo, which was imposed after China's 1989 crackdown on student protests at Tiananmen Square, should end.

Home is Where the Heart is

Valerie Niquet, director of the Asia centre at the French Institute of International Relations, said Sarkozy's campaign pledge was mainly about domestic politics.

"During the campaign he made these grand statements on human rights in general -- it was his speech on a 'break' with the past, but it was totally linked to domestic politics and his relations with Chirac, and not so much linked to foreign reality which in my view was not at all his priority," Niquet said.

The French president came under more pressure in December, when he rolled out the red carpet for Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who is also widely accused of silencing opponents through torture and imprisonment.

Gaddafi, who stayed for five days, said human rights were not discussed when he met Sarkozy, which French officials denied, later saying Gaddafi gave them "guarantees".

France's junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, strongly criticised Gaddafi ahead of his visit. But she was not invited to China and has kept a low profile in Tunisia.

In Tunisia as with Gaddafi, Sarkozy said it was important to foster strong ties with the government for strategic reasons -- Libya is seeking to shed its pariah status after abandoning its weapons of mass destruction programmes, and Tunisia is a stable country in a region that has seen a rise in militant Islam.

But that has not been enough to silence the critics.

"From Jacques Chirac to Nicolas Sarkozy. relations between Paris and Tunis have not changed one iota," said left-wing daily Liberation, which generally opposes Sarkozy.