THE French government will revise a 60-year-old decree to allow banks to stay open six days a week instead of five, Labour Minister, Mr Jacques Barrot said yesterday.

Mr Barrot told a news conference that banks and unions had failed to reach agreement on the issue and that the government would go ahead with plans to repeal the 1937 banking hours decree to allow bank branches stay open from Monday to Saturday.

The announcement drew an angry response from a common front of banking unions, which vowed to step up its protests against the move.