ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed the hope that France will extend technical assistance to Pakistan in the field of civil nuclear energy.

Talking to Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the Military Joint Chief of Staff to the President of France, who had called on him on Monday, he welcomed the French stance that the use of civil nuclear energy was the right of every country.

Mr Gilani said that being a leading trading and development partner of Pakistan, France should resume strategic consultations to take bilateral relations to new heights.

Admiral Guillaud reiterated his government’s policy of respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan and said that France wanted to see its relations back on track. He said the French troops were in Afghanistan to help Pakistani forces fighting the war on terror on their soil and not to substitute them.

He agreed with the prime minister that a stable and peaceful Afghanistan was in Pakistan’s interest and said that France wanted a strong democratic dispensation in Afghanistan to defeat extremism and terrorism in the region.

Admiral Guillaud said Islamabad was seeking greater market access to the EU, preferably in the form of a free trade agreement, and since negotiations had been started with India and all other South Asian countries, leaving out Pakistan was discriminatory.Mr Gilani noted that bilateral defence cooperation had progressed satisfactorily and Pakistan now had a large fleet of Mirage III and V aircraft. He appreciated the French assistance for assembling the Agosta submarine and expressed the hope that cooperation would be expanded.

The French delegation was briefed in detail on Pakistan’s efforts in the war on terror and welcomed President Nicolas Sarkozy’s stance that incursions by the US and Nato forces into Pakistani territory would be counter-productive.

Also on Monday, in a telephone conversation with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Mr Gilani said that one of the main objectives of terrorists was to destroy Pakistan’s economy by targeting foreigners so that foreign businessmen left the country.