Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he was impatient for US president-elect Barack Obama to take office so that the two of them could "change the world."

"We are eager to see him go to work so that we can change the world with him," Sarkozy said during a stop in the city of Provins.

However, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned that Obama could not work political miracles.

"He is an exceptional man," Kouchner said, "but he does not have a magic wand."

Paris - European helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter said Tuesday its consolidated turnover for 2008 rose by 7.5 per cent to 4.5 billion euros (5.85 billion dollars).

The company, a subsidiary of aerospace giant EADS, delivered 588 new helicopters last year, making it the world's number-one manufacturer of civil and parapublic helicopters.

Order bookings for the year totaled 4.9 billion euros, "still showing a strong demand for new helicopter models and services," the company said.

However, the number of helicopters ordered fell from 802 in 2007 to 715.

Paris - The global economic crisis could lead to the failure of one out of every five small and mid-sized companies in the European automobile industry, European Commission Vice-President Guenther Verheugen said Tuesday in Paris.

Therefore, Brussels must do everything in its power to protect the sector, Verheugen said at a crisis meeting of individuals from all branches of the industry and French government officials aimed at devising state measures to aid the sector.

Paris - Former French presidential candidate Segolene Royal said US president-elect Barack Obama was inspired by her campaign and copied it, the online edition of the daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday.

"Yes, I inspired Obama and his teams copied us," Royal said in Washington, where she was to be the only French politician of note to take part in Obama's inauguration later on Tuesday.

Royal said Obama's campaign aides took away several of her ideas, such as her "win-win" slogan or the idea of the "citizen expert."

Rome/Paris - The agent of French midfielder Frank Ribery has denied reports AC Milan had made an offer to Bayern Munich for the player, the Italian website calciomercato. it reported on Monday.

"I know the management of Milan very well, but nobody called me about Ribery," the football agent Alain Migliaccio was quoted as saying. "It's just allegations and suppositions by newspapers."