The extended norm-conserving pseudopotentials developed by Shirley et al.,
in the nonrelativistic case, has been extended to the relativistic case. We
have discussed the importance of the relativistic terms added in the case
of the hard pseudopotentials. this correction allows us to revise the preci
sion linked to the nonlinearity of the electronic structure methods on a so
lid in the particular case of heavy atoms. (C) 2000 Academie des sciences/E
ditions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.