France to host May G20 meet on nuclear standards

A meeting of energy advisers has already been set for April 5 in Abu Dhabi, but French Energy Minister Eric Besson said on Wednesday Group of 20 energy ministers would meet before the end of June to discuss safety tests on nuclear plants. "We will ask the nuclear safety authorities of the Group of 20 countries to meet, if possible, in Paris during May, to define international nuclear safety standards," Sarkozy said during a reception at the French embassy in Tokyo.

Sarkozy, who flew to Tokyo after opening a G20 monetary reform seminar in China, is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since a devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami which triggered a nuclear disaster that has alarmed nuclear-powered countries around the world.

A team of French nuclear experts, including the CEO of state-owned Areva <CEPFi.PA>, flew to Tokyo earlier this week to help Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) as it battles to bring its crippled Fukushima plant under control.

France — which this year is chairing the Group of 20 economic powers — is the world's most nuclear-dependent country, producing 75 percent of its electricity from 58 reactors.