China will support France as the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue in Beijing Thursday.

After studying the two proposed sites in France and Japan for the construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, China had decided to support France, Zhang said.

France had been competing with Japan as the site of the multi-billion dollar project, but China hoped the issue could be settled according to consultations among all parties, she said.

The project is the world's largest-yet nuclear fusion power plant with technology touted as a solution to global energy problems. Once completed in 2050, the ITER will generate clean, safe and inexhaustible electricity.

The ITER participants -- the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Canada and China -- are divided into two groups. If successful, the ITER is expected to be the world's first commercially viable fusion reactor and could herald a global energy revolution.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2004)