FRANCE: Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi says oil-consuming countries should meet to fix maximum price or invest in nuclear power

Record ID: 343840

  • Title: FRANCE: Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi says oil-consuming countries should meet to fix maximum price or invest in nuclear power
  • Date: 14th July 2008
  • Summary: (W4) PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 13, 2008) (REUTERS) ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI ENTERING ROOM TO GIVE NEWS CONFERENCE, SITTING DOWN (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) SILVIO BERLUSCONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER, SAYING: "It is the worst problem that most people have to face. We therefore have to find a concrete solution to the problem. My proposal is that consumer countries need
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA7H3O4SZK2BRLNV3KUVYDFLII4
  • Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says oil-consuming countries should meet to fix a maximum price they are prepared to pay for oil, otherwise they would have to invest heavily in nuclear power.
    Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday (July 13) that oil-consuming countries should meet to fix a maximum price they are prepared to pay for oil, 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.

    "It is the worst problem that most people have to face. We therefore have to find a concrete solution to the problem. My proposal is that consumer countries need to meet as soon as possible, maybe in London with Gordon Brown, to reach an agreement on a maximum price for oil which cannot be breached. Alternatively, we will need a massive building programme of nuclear power reactors. 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 told a news conference in Paris, where he was attending the Mediterranean summit.
    Italy halted its nuclear energy programme after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union.
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