French President Emmanuel Macron has promised three months of consultations to bring about "pragmatic solutions" on energy policy, in his first major response to the fuel price protests that have sprung up around the country this month.

The centrist president suggested a mechanism could be found to tie planned tax rises to oil market prices so that citizens would not be too hard-hit by global rises in the price of oil.

The protests by the "Yellow Vest" movement were a "social alarm call," Macron acknowledged, but he insisted that any response should not involve ignoring "our responsibilities for today and tomorrow" as there was also "an environmental alarm call."

France had to admit that "we have done too little" on climate issues, the centrist president argued, noting that planned rises in fuel taxes had been approved by previous governments on the right and left.