France carried out testing to establish whether vehicles on its roads were possibly equipped with banned software, the kind used by Volkswagen in the United States to trick emissions tests.

"There is no fraud at Renault. Shareholders and employees should be reassured," Royal told journalists.

The minister added that presence of C02 and NOx above accepted limits had however been detected in cars of other manufacturers.

(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Bate Felix)

Stocks treated in this article : PEUGEOT, Renault, Volkswagen AG