French President Nicolas Sarkozy has sent China a list of prisoners and rights activists ahead of his visit to Beijing for the Olympics opening ceremony, the French foreign ministry says.

Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, "has just, in the name of the European Union, sent the Chinese authorities a list of individual cases of prisoners and human rights activists," said ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

He said the list included both "individual cases on a list raised by the EU with China as part of their regular dialogue on human rights" and additional cases singled out by rights groups and by European deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

The foreign ministry's announcement came as Paris police banned a coalition of rights groups from holding a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Paris Friday.

Police said they wanted to prevent a repeat of the "violent disturbances" that broke out during protests marking the Olympic flame's passage through Paris in April.

The Beijing visit is a chance for Sarkozy to mend ties that were badly frayed by his initial threat to boycott the ceremony over the Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March, and by the Olympic flame fiasco.

Rights groups have criticised Sarkozy's decision to attend - which he justified by noting progress in talks between China and the Dalai Lama - urging him to raise the plight of jailed dissidents with Chinese leaders.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) took out full-page ads in the French press Thursday with photographs of jailed dissidents, asking Sarkozy to honour a "promise" to demand their release from China.