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Renault loan still not signed, site closures must be last resort - Le Maire

French government attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris

PARIS (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday said that the government had yet to sign off on a planned 5 billion euro (4.49 billion pounds) loan for Renault <RENA.PA>, and that the carmaker's site closures and job cuts could only ever be a last resort.

"The closure of a site must only be a last resort," Le Maire told France 2 television.

French President Emmanuel Macron this week said that the government, which has a 15% stake in Renault, would not sign off on the state loan until management and unions had concluded talks over the company's French workforce and sites.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Goodman)