Paris - The French government is to issue a decree next week banning companies that receive state aid from awarding bonuses and stock options to their executives, the online edition of the daily Le Figaro reported on Thursday.

Claude Gueant, the head of President Nicolas Sarkozy's office, told France 24 television that the decree would establish "the conditions under which the attribution of stock options and other benefits and bonuses is forbidden if the company receives (state) aid."

The decision came after a week of controversy over stock options, extravagant severance payments and bonuses paid to executives of the bank Societe Generale, a subsidiary of the bank Credit Agricole and the outgoing head of auto equipment supplier Valeo.

All three companies have received aid from the government within the framework of the Sarkozy's economic bailout plans.

After pressure from the government, the Societe Generale senior managers decided not to accept the stock options that had been allocated to them.

In a related story, Le Figaro reported on Thursday that gas tanker workers for the French utility GDF-Suez were going on strike to protest the awarding of more than 1.1 million stock options to the company's two senior executives.

The attribution of 830,000 stock options to company head Gerard Mestrallet and 300,000 to his vice president, Jean-Francois Cirelli, has provoked anger among employees, who are in the process of negotiating with the firm over a pay rise.

The CGT trade union, which has called the open-ended strike, expects 80 per cent of the employees concerned to walk off the job.

However, the government decree would not affect GDF-Suez, since it has not received any state aid. In 2008, the company earned a profit of 6.5 billion euros (8.8 billion dollars).