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UPDATE 1-French car sales fall 4 pct in May

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PARIS, June 1 (Reuters) - New car registrations in France fell 4 percent year-on-year in May, the first decline since December but that was mainly due to fewer working days than last year.

Peugeot was hit harder than domestic rival Renault and both underperformed foreign car makers.

When the figures are adjusted to include a comparable number of working days as in May last year, sales rose 7.3 percent, according to figures from the CCFA, France's auto maker association.

It maintained its forecast for a roughly 2 percent rise in car sales this year, a spokesman said.

Registrations reached 143,059 last month on a reported basis, CCFA said.

Peugeot saw its sales fall 12.8 percent in May, not seasonally adjusted, with the DS brand down 44 percent and Citroen falling nearly 16 percent. Renault sales fell 3.1 percent, with low-cost brand Dacia down 10 percent.

French car sales have risen 3.8 percent to 791,143 so far this year on a reported basis and 5.8 percent on a comparable basis as car makers like Renault and Peugeot benefit from an uptick in consumer demand.

European car sales have shown a broad-based rise in demand this year in major markets like Germany, Britain and France, with demand for mass-market models outstrip that for higher-end cars. (Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Leila Abboud and Susan Fenton)