Sarkozy, Kan call for stronger checks on nuclear safety

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking alongside Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan, on Thursday called for clear international standards on nuclear safety in the light of the ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Sarkozy, the chairman of the Group of Eight and Group of 20, said the forums will take up the issue at its meeting this year, when Kan will share Japan's experience with the rest of the world.

"We must fully understand what happened and what was experienced in Japan," Sarkozy told a joint press conference with Kan.

However, he made it clear that France – the world's second biggest producer of nuclear power after the US as well as a major supplier of nuclear equipment – was not about to abandon the increasingly controversial energy source. "We have chosen to use nuclear power. That will not change," he said, while calling for strict international safety standards.

Sarkozy, the first foreign leader to visit Japan after the 11 March earthquake and tsunami, also called for a meeting among nuclear safety agencies from G20 member states.

"We call on the independent authorities of G20 members to meet, if possible in Paris, to define an international nuclear safety standard" for power plants, he said in a speech earlier in the day at the French Embassy in Tokyo.