PARIS, March 8, 2010 (AFP) - President Nicolas Sarkozy urged international financial institutions to help energy-hungry countries develop nuclear power Monday, and announced that France would help spread atomic technology.
    Speaking at the opening of a meeting in Paris of senior energy officials from around 60 countries, Sarkozy said Paris would set up an international nuclear energy institute to better promote French expertise abroad.
    "I can't understand why nuclear power is ostracised by international finance, it's the stuff of scandal," he said, urging the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and others to do more.
    In the same speech, hosted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Sarkozy announced the creation of a body to group "France's best teachers and researchers" to offer training in nuclear technology.
    "I have decided to change up a gear by creating an International Institute of Nuclear Energy, that will include an international nuclear school," he said.
    He said the French school would become the heart of an international network of institutes, beginning with a centre in Jordan.
    "Other centres of nuclear training will be developed with French support, such as the Franco-Chinese nuclear energy institute, in cooperation with Guangzhou University," he said.
    France generates more of its own electricity -- around 75 percent of its needs -- through nuclear power than any other economy, and has made the export of its reactor technology a key economic objective.