France gets military base in Gulf

By Emmanuel Jarry

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - France and the United Arab Emirates signed deals on Tuesday granting French troops their first permanent base in the Gulf, across the water from Iran, and agreeing to cooperate on a peaceful nuclear programme.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a Gulf tour aimed at securing billions of dollars worth of contracts for French firms, has already offered Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, help in developing civilian nuclear energy.

On Monday, French power giant EDF signed a memorandum with Qatar "to engage discussions on cooperation in the areas of nuclear power production and renewable energy generation", according to a document made available to Reuters.

Sarkozy, who has already signed civilian nuclear deals with Arab oil producers Algeria and Libya, has made no secret of his view that Muslim and Arab states have a right to atomic power.

Tuesday's agreements set a framework for future cooperation on nuclear energy and allow France to establish a military base with an official capacity of 400-500 people in the UAE, which lies across a short stretch of Gulf waters from Iran, a document distributed by Sarkozy's office said.

The base comes as part of a 1995 defence agreement between the two countries and will eventually include air as well as infantry and naval forces. A French military official said the base would be fully functional in 2009.

"As part of this accord's extension, our UAE friends asked us to open a base ... which shows our friendship and strategic partnership with the UAE and is a signal to all that France participates in the stability of this region," Sarkozy said.

France's Total also confirmed on Monday it would develop two third-generation nuclear reactors in the UAE with Suez as its main partner and state-owned nuclear reactor maker Areva.