NEW DELHI, Feb 20: India on Monday signed a series of trade and defence deals with French President Jacques Chirac and a deal for peaceful nuclear energy cooperation despite continuing fallout over an Indian industrialist’s hostile bid to buy a top European steelmaker.

While Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used a press conference after talks with President Chirac in New Delhi to hail the nuclear and defence pacts, the French leader launched a broadside against the Mittal Steel for its bid to take over steelmaker Arcelor.

The $23 billion offer was “hostile (and) purely financial, that is to say without any industrial plan being known or revealed and contrary to custom, without any prior consultation,” Mr Chirac said.

“It’s his right” to make the surprise bid, Mr Chirac said referring to multi-billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian citizen who heads the Netherlands-based Mittal Steel.

“In fact it’s also the right of the Europeans to be concerned about employment problems, technology problems,” the French leader added.

The French leader said Paris was in a position to support New Delhi’s growth “without a stranglehold of economic constraints,” and to allow India to have the energy it needs “without producing polluting greenhouse gases”.

The nuclear declaration said the two nations would pursue nuclear energy cooperation “exclusively for peaceful purposes”.

It confirmed the two countries were in talks to strike “a bilateral cooperation agreement on the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, subject to their respective international commitments and obligations”.

Mr Singh said all facilities procured by India through international cooperation on civilian nuclear energy would “of course be subjected to (IAEA) safeguards”.

“We appreciate France’s support for the ongoing efforts to enable full civilian nuclear civilian cooperation between India and the international community,” Singh said.

Chirac had told India Today magazine India must first win the support of the 44-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for civilian nuclear technology transfer before cooperation can be effected.

The defence agreement covers matters such as procurement, research and development of defence materials, joint exercises, professional exchanges and training, a joint statement said.

The two nations also agreed to seek to double bilateral trade from the $2.99 billion recorded in 2004-05 within the next five years.

Among the agreements inked Monday was one by state-run domestic carrier Indian, formerly known as Indian Airlines, to purchase of 43 Airbus aircraft. — AFP