FRANCE: July 14, 2008


PARIS - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday oil-consuming countries should meet to fix a maximum price they are prepared to pay for oil, warning otherwise they would have to invest heavily in nuclear power.


Denouncing the "unfair" movement of wealth from consumer nations to oil-producing countries and the "exponential" rise in prices, Berlusconi issued what he said was a threat to oil exporters, saying his proposal for a meeting had the approval of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"Consumer countries need to meet as soon as possible, maybe in London, to reach an agreement on a maximum price for oil which cannot be breached," Berlusconi told reporters after a summit of EU and Mediterranean leaders.

"Alternatively, we will need a massive building programme of nuclear power reactors," he added. Italy halted its nuclear energy programme following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

"It is an emergency situation that we find ourselves in today, and I think that wielding this threat should bring a fall in the price of oil," he added. (Reporting by Francois Murphy and Alberto Sisto, writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Jon Boyle)


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE