US president-elect Donald Trump and French President
Francois Hollande vowed in a telephone call on Friday to try “clarify
positions” on potentially thorny issues including climate change, French
presidential sources said.

In a first call lasting 7-8 minutes the two leaders
discussed the fight against terrorism, the battle against the Islamic State
group in Iraq and Syria, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the Paris climate
accord, said a French presidential source.

The two men expressed a “desire to work together,”
the source added.

Climate change denier Trump has caused alarm in France by
pledging to withdraw from the landmark deal to tackle global warming struck in
Paris in December 2015.

The French also took a dim view of Trump’s claim that the
terror attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris a year ago this week might
have been avoided if the country had looser gun laws.

But in their talks Hollande and Trump sought common ground,
emphasising the friendship between their countries and the “history and
values” they share, the source said.

Hollande, who is battling record low approval ratings ahead
of presidential elections in France next year, had vowed a “frank”
discussion with the Republican.

“Donald Trump has been elected. My duty is to ensure
that we have the best relations but on the basis of frankness and
clarity,” Hollande told France 2 television earlier.

On Wednesday, he had warned that Trump’s stunning election
win “opens a period of uncertainty”.

Hollande had made no secret of his desire to see Hillary
Clinton win the White House, declaring a few months ago that Trump’s excesses
“make you want to retch”.

His call with Trump came a day after talks between the
forthcoming US president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel congratulated Trump and said she looked forward to
meeting him, at the latest, when Germany hosts a G20 summit in July in the
northern port city of Hamburg.

Merkel had offered Trump “close cooperation” and
“stressed that Germany and the United States of America are closely tied
through common values,” her spokesman Georg Streiter said.

On Wednesday, Merkel had issued a first statement on Trump’s
election, in which she pointedly said cooperation must be based on shared
democratic values and respect for human dignity and reminded him of the global
responsibility he carries.