Green Times

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, closing a two-day state visit Thursday, hoped to strike a deal with Britain for a joint nuclear power program, aiming to replace aging plant power plants in the U.K. and to export technology to non-nuclear states across the world.Sarkozy was expected to offer French expertise in civilian nuclear power to the British plan during an intense day of talks.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was greeting Sarkozy at his official London residence, plans to host a conference later this year for non-nuclear countries who aim to develop civilian atomic power programs.

London would extend an invitation to Iran, if it meets its international obligations to cease uranium enrichment, Brown’s office said.

France produces 80% of its electricity from nuclear power, compared with 20% in the U.K., and has greater expertise in the field.
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The French utility Electricite de France SA hopes to build at least four nuclear power plants in Britain, and under the deal Britain and France could launch an ambitious project to offer civilian power programs to a host of countries.

Brown sees the joint venture between Britain and France as both a commercial opportunity and a means of helping prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Britain’s business secretary, John Hutton, said on Wednesday that the U.K. should become a world leader in developing nuclear technology, saying nuclear research and development could inject an additional 20 billion pounds (euro26 billion; US$40 billion) into the economy.

The two countries were likely to conclude a deal for Britain to purchase Airbus A330 aerial refueling tankers from France. Defense officials declined to confirm details before the summit.

After pomp and pageantry on Wednesday, Thursday’s agenda focussed tightly on politics - with immigration, defense cooperation and climate change also being discussed.

Sarkozy and Brown were attending a summit with a host of French and British ministers at London’s Emirates Stadium, home of the popular Arsenal soccer club - seen as symbolic because it is an English team with a French manager and some top French players.

Discussions were likely to include the slow progress on a joint call for a 26,000-strong peacekeeping unit of U.N and African Union troops for Darfur.

Sarkozy, who said Tuesday he could “not close the door to any possibility” of a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, is likely to raise China’s handling of protest in Tibet. Brown insists he will attend the Olympics.

In a fiery speech to a rare joint sitting of Britain’s House of Commons and House of Lords on Wednesday, the French leader urged new dialogue between China’s government and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

He also pledged to send more French troops to Afghanistan, if NATO allies offer Afghans more responsibility and better coordinate non-military efforts.

“We cannot afford to lose Afghanistan,” Sarkozy said, speaking in French.

Canada has warned it will pull its 2,500 soldiers from Afghanistan, if other allies do not offer more help. It wants 1,000 more troops for anti-Taliban efforts, while the United States has appealed to its NATO allies to bear a greater share of the war-fighting in the region.

Sarkozy played the statesman Wednesday, greeting Queen Elizabeth II, inspecting rows of cavalrymen and changing into smart ceremonial dress for a Windsor Castle banquet.

He even ditched his trademark sunglasses and kept his ubiquitous cellphone out of view.

On previous foreign trips, Sarkozy casually checked his cellphone for SMS messages and was last month caught making an undignified outburst at a French agriculture fair, chastising a member of the crowd with expletives.

But the French leader, nicknamed the “bling-bling president” because of his extravagant tastes, appeared in a serious mood as he reviewed a guard of honor in Windsor and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey.

“My wife and I will never forget this visit,” he said, toasting the queen at a lavish state banquet.

Britain seems unlikely to forget his wife. Eyes have been fixed firmly on the glamorous model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who curtsied to the queen and chatted animatedly with her as the French couple arrived in Windsor.

Even her demur belted gray Christian Dior coat and pillbox hat were the height of diplomacy - made by a French fashion house which is led by an English designer, John Galliano.

“It was like a French Catholic schoolgirl meets Jackie O,” said Lucy Yeomans, editor of the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, likening Bruni-Sarkozy’s outfit to the famously stylish former U.S. first lady Jackie Kennedy.

Along with Brown’s wife Sarah Brown, Bruni-Sarkozy was making a public speech Thursday, offering support to a maternal mortality charity at a fundraising lunch.

Britain’s tabloids, however, greeted the leader’s wife in typical style - printing a nude photograph she posed for in 1993. The original print is due to be auctioned in New York next month by Christie’s auction house.

Sarkozy’s 36-hour trip - the first state visit to Britain by a French president in 12 years - has offered him hope of arresting a sagging domestic approval rating, providing an opportunity to appear dignified.

The queen on Wednesday bestowed him with the Order of the Bath, a ceremonial British honor, and gave him a framed book of British stamps, her office said. In return, the French leader offered her a copy of “Perfect Knowledge Of Horses,” a book published in France in 1743.

Following the soccer stadium summit, Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy will ride a boat to the Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, east London, the site where the east and west hemispheres meet at zero degrees longitude, and home to a museum on timekeeping.

British officials said the French president requested to visit the site because of his fascination with clocks.

Sarkozy will later address a second banquet and dine with business leaders, before returning to Paris.
Source: USA Today