Talks have been deadlocked for months on where to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), with the European Union threatening to go alone if Japan does not drop its bid.

"France along with Europe hope for Japan's participation as part of the international cooperation on ITER," Chirac said on a visit to Tokyo.

"I have no doubt that an agreement on this issue can be found quickly between the European Union and Japan," he told a seminar on sustainable development organized by the Nikkei financial press group.

ITER, which would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion, is designed to one day generate inexhaustible supplies of electricity, but is not expected to be operational before 2050.

The United States and South Korea support Japan's offer to build ITER in Rokkasho-mura, a northern Japanese village near the Pacific Ocean, while China and Russia back the EU bid for the southern French town of Cadarache.

European Union leaders at a March 23 meeting in Brussels said they would go ahead with construction in Cadarache and gave Japan until July to agree.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, after talks Sunday with Chirac, said Japan "has no intention to withdraw its bid to invite ITER."

A Japanese foreign ministry official said Koizumi and Chirac agreed in principle for an EU delegation to visit Japan before April 18, when the Europeans will hold a new meeting on ITER in Brussels.

"Japan and France have had fruitful cooperation for more than a quarter century on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. We want this cooperation to continue, including through the ITER program," Chirac said in an interview with the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper published Monday.

Chirac said without further detail that Tokyo had made "constructive proposals" which would designate a sharing of responsibilities between the country which hosts the ITER reactor and the other.

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