PARIS - President Barack Obama said Tuesday the American people love all things French and acknowledged his own penchant for Gallic food and wines.

In his first interview with a French television channel, Obama heaped praise on the country in an apparent attempted to stamp out any lingering tensions sparked by France's opposition to the United State's 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"France is one of the most important countries in the world," the president told I-Tele and Canal Plus, days ahead of a trip that will take him to Normandy and Paris for D-Day commemorations. He said French collaboration was crucial to solving the world's problems, from climate change to the global recession.

 
US President Barack Obama is pictured alongside a portrait of the first US President George Washington, in the White House in Washington, June 2, 2009.

Obama also spoke enthusiastically about French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with whom he said he had a "wonderful relationship."

"He has been very courageous in some of the decisions he has made," Obama said, referring to Sarkozy's strong stance on Afghanistan and Iran's nuclear program.

Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, sparked widespread hostility toward France and French people and products among Americans with his staunch opposition to the Iraq war.

But Obama strove to prove that the days of "freedom fries" and US boycotts of French wines and cheeses - which have come to symbolize the worst of the recent bout of French-American tension - are a thing of the past.

"I think the American people continue to love all French things," he said. Relations between France and the US have steadily improved in recent years, particularly since the 2007 election of Sarkozy, who is widely seen as pro-American, and that of Obama, who is wildly popular in France.

Asked what about France he himself loved, Obama responded, "Let's see, we have the food, we have Paris, we got the south of France, Provence, the wine."

Obama said he had traveled through France during his college days and that a return trip to the southeastern region of Provence was long overdue, though he acknowledged his French was rusty.

"I studied it in high school and I just forgot it," he said, adding "Michelle, I think she speaks a little French."

"Merci beaucoup." he said, concluding the 10-minute-long interview.