By NNN-Xinhua,
Amman : Energy-scarce Jordan and France signed a cooperation agreement to develop peaceful use of nuclear energy, the official Petra news agency reported.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Basheer and his visiting French counterpart Bernard Kouchner inked the agreement in Amman on Friday, which outlined the framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation between the two countries, said the report.
The two also signed a second deal on military and economic cooperation, it added.
Under the first agreement, France will provide assistance for the tiny Arab country in mining and extracting nuclear material, using nuclear energy to produce electricity and desalinate sea water, and training Jordanian nuclear personnel, according to the report.
At a joint press conference following their meeting, Basheer expressed satisfaction over the level of the ties that link the two countries, the report said.
Basheer expressed Jordan’s keenness to develop these relations and building on them in political, economic and trade spheres so as to achieve common interests of both countries.
For his part, the French foreign minister hailed bilateral relations between Jordan and France, voicing his desire to strengthen the bilateral ties as well as consultation and communication on issues of common concern, the report said.
Jordanian officials have said French energy services company Areva could extract around 130,000 tons of uranium from Jordan’s 1.2 billion tons of phosphate reserves and build a nuclear reactor.
Facing natural resources scarcity, Jordan is endeavoring to seek for alternative energy sources and adopted legislation in 2007, paving the way for the peaceful use of nuclear power to generate electricity.