France and Italy backed pledges to help debt-stricken Greece today after a summit meeting at which they also agreed to tighten cooperation in the planned rebirth of Italy's nuclear energy industry, according to Reuters. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi aimed to build on a nuclear energy accord signed last year, in which France agreed to help Italy rebuild a sector it abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. But the meeting was overshadowed by the tense situation facing the euro zone as the Greek debt crisis has gathered in intensity in recent days after growing doubts over a euro zone rescue plan. "The Greek authorities have taken courageous measures to restore their public finances," Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Berlusconi. "A support plan has been agreed by all the countries of the euro zone. We are ready to take action at any moment to come to the aid of Greece," he said. Berlusconi, whose country faces questions about the sustainability of its own huge debt burden, said it was in Europe's interest to help Greece, "otherwise there will be very negative consequences for our common currency and our economy." The main part of the meetings, attended by senior ministers and energy industry executives from both countries, was devoted to a series of agreements intended to bolster cooperation in the nuclear sector. Berlusconi's centre-right government wants 25 percent of Italy's electricity to come from nuclear power and France, the world's second largest producer of atomic energy, has eyed the potentially lucrative market closely. Seven agreements were signed, including a memorandum of understanding on reactor projects between France's Areva, the world's biggest nuclear reactor maker, and Italian engineering group Ansaldo Nucleare. Italy will use Areva's latest EPR technology, a reactor designed to resist powerful shocks including plane crashes, for the first four plants to be built. Another agreement on training and research was signed, giving France a key role in building the next generation of Italian nuclear engineers and technicians. The Italian government gave a final approval in February to a decree paving the way for starting work on new plants in 2013 and nuclear production by 2020. The decree sets criteria for selecting sites for new atomic plants, a sensitive issue in the densely populated country, which has zones of significant seismic activity. Plans for a joint Franco-Italian army brigade specialising in mountain warfare were also unveiled, matching the existing Franco-German unit created by former President Francois Mitterrand and ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The announcement, of mainly symbolic importance for the moment, matched agreements over defence cooperation in satellites and naval operations. A separate series of accords aimed at opening the way to cooperation between French national rail operator SNCF and the Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato were also signed.
