Sarkozy pushes French banks on bonuses before G20

President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned the heads of France's biggest banks on Tuesday as he steps up pressure for tighter controls on traders' bonuses ahead of meetings with the Group of 20 nations next month.

French banks adopted a code of good conduct based on broad G20 guidelines in February in exchange for receiving billions of euros in liquidity support from the government aimed at ending huge guaranteed bonuses. But the debate in France was rekindled earlier this month when it emerged that BNP Paribas, had set aside 1 billion euros ($1.43 billion) for possible bonuses after reporting a 6.6 percent rise in second quarter profits.