  We develop a self-consistent description of hot nuclei within the
relativistic Thomas--Fermi approximation using the relativistic mean-field
model for nuclear interactions. The temperature dependence of the symmetry
energy and other physical quantities of a nucleus are calculated by employing
the subtraction procedure in order to isolate the nucleus from the surrounding
nucleon gas. It is found that the symmetry energy coefficient of finite nuclei
is significantly affected by the Coulomb polarization effect. We also examine
the dependence of the results on nuclear interactions and make a comparison
between the results obtained from relativistic and nonrelativistic Thomas-Fermi
calculations.
