"We are optimistic about getting a result on ITER in favour of France," European Commission spokesman Fabio Fabbi told AFP in reference to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

Officials from the EU commission and Japan met to discuss the ITER site at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Monday.

A Japanese official at the talks said that Tokyo was adamant in its view that the reactor should be built in Rokkasho-mura in northern Japan.

"We see no reason to change our position," said Satoru Ohtaki, director of nuclear fusion at the Japanese ministry of science and technology.

"We shall put an extremely generous offer on the table" to obtain the right to build the reactor in Japan, he said.

Another meeting was planned in Vienna on Tuesday bringing in the other ITER project partners: the United States and South Korea -- which support the Japanese bid -- plus Russia and China, which back the EU bid.

"In our opinion, it would be counter-productive at this moment to give more information on these highly delicate negotiations," an official with the EU's Dutch presidency said.

ITER is a test bed for what is being billed as a clean, safe, inexhaustible energy source of the future. The project, emulating the sun's nuclear fusion, is not expected to generate electricity before 2050.

The two candidates to host ITER are Cadarache in southern France and Rokkasho-mura.

If Japan withdraws its bid at the Vienna talks, sources said the European Commission would submit the accord to a meeting of EU research ministers on November 26.

The accord would detail notably what Japan would get out of the project in return for backing out of hosting the site, the sources said.

The ITER budget is projected to be 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, including 4.7 billion euros to build the reactor. The EU plans to finance 40 percent of the total.

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