PARIS (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is being formally welcomed to France at the gold-domed Invalides monument where Napoleon is buried.

While Rouhani arrived in Paris on Wednesday from Rome, the official French government greeting ceremony is being held Thursday morning.

Rouhani is also meeting Thursday with the chief of UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. cultural body, and speaking to high-level French executives whose companies are interested in resuming trade with his long-isolated nation of 80 million people.

Later he and French President Francois Hollande will oversee a ceremony for signing about 20 bilateral accords.

The trip is an effort to usher in a new era after a landmark accord to curb Iran's nuclear program and lift Western sanctions. However, France is now weighing new sanctions over Iranian ballistic missile tests.