France's Sarkozy spells out plans for green talks

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday laid out his plans for large-scale talks on the country's future environment policy, but his government said there would be no backing down on the role of nuclear power.

Sarkozy has pledged to hold talks with interest groups this autumn on what eco-friendly measures his government can take.

This would not be "yet another conference to note that there is an environmental emergency", Sarkozy said in the text of a speech to environmental organizations on Monday. "It is about negotiating on concrete measures."

Nine environmental non-governmental organizations, including Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), were invited to Sarkozy's Elysee Palace as part of preparations for the talks, which are due to be held in September or October.

The negotiations, which would also include business leaders, trade unions and scientific experts, would focus three subjects: biodiversity, health and preventing global warming.

The result would be a 5-year "contract" between the parties, with the main points being evaluated annually, Sarkozy said.

Following on from a campaign pledge to make the environment a top priority, Sarkozy handed former prime minister Alain Juppe a superministry in charge of the environment, transport and energy policy.

Juppe, who is also number two in the government that Sarkozy appointed last week, told reporters on Monday there would be no compromise on Sarkozy's promise to promote nuclear energy, which already accounts for 80 percent of French power generation.

"The fact that France will pursue its electro-nuclear program is not a compromise, it is a decision. There are many other subjects besides that to try to accompany that electro-nuclear policy with initiatives," Juppe said.

Juppe cited renewable energy and energy efficiency as areas in which there was room for new initiatives.

Another area that environmental groups have strongly criticized Sarkozy on is genetically modified crops, which they oppose while Sarkozy has not come out clearly either way.

Several environmentalists who met Sarkozy on Monday, however, sounded upbeat about the conference.

"The simple fact that, in a right-wing government, on the first Monday of this government, the president and minister of state devote this day to these goals, seems to show that there is a cultural change, something is going on," television star Nicolas Hulot told reporters as he left the president's office.

(Additional reporting by Jon Boyle)