JACQUES CHIRAC, the French President, has stolen a march on Tony Blair’s proposed energy review by pledging that no train in his country would be powered by conventional fossil fuels by 2026.

M Chirac used a new year’s address yesterday to cement France’s commitment to nuclear power as well as urging an accelerated development of solar energy and electronic and hybrid diesel cars. In addition, the French President wants to see a fivefold increase in biomass fuels production over the next two years.

M Chirac’s address won widespread support from France’s business leaders and comes amid increased pressure on Mr Blair’s Government to resolve Britain’s energy problems.

M Chirac’s continued support for nuclear power — France is the world’s second-biggest producer of atomic energy behind the US — also comes at a critical time for Europe.

Although the gas-supply stand-off between Russia and Ukraine appears resolved, it highlighted Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Concerns about a potential supply blockage come as industry is already trying to cope with soaring oil and gas prices. In Britain, a cold spell of weather last week intensified fears that the country, already an importer of gas, would face supply shortages.

Rising household and industrial energy costs helped to prompt Mr Blair to announce a widespread energy review.

The review, however, is not expected to be completed until June, although Mr Blair has pledged that the Government will make a final decision on the nuclear power issue this year.

Support for increased nuclear power generation in Britain is gathering momentum and its backers will have been buoyed further by M Chirac’s declarations yesterday.

The French President said that the country’s national rail operator, SNCF, and the Paris Metro operator, RATP, “should not consume a drop of oil in 20 years’ time”.

M Chirac also called for the ITER project, an international experimental fusion reactor that will be based in southern France, to demonstrate “the ability to harness the energy of the sun by the end of the century”.

Acknowledging that ITER was a long-term project, M Chirac said that France would need to develop a fourth generation of nuclear reactors to take over in the 2030s and 2040s.

France’s present “second generation” reactors are expected to be replaced by a third generation from 2012. France has 58 nuclear reactors spread across 19 atomic power plants. No new large power plants have been built since 1993, despite increased electricity demand.

State-owned Electricité de France, which generates a quarter of Europe’s electricity, three quarters of it from nuclear power, welcomed M Chirac’s address. EdF has already launched plans to start a third-generation 1,600 megawatt European pressurised water reactor.

Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of Areva, the world’s biggest civilian nuclear power group, said that M Chirac’s ambitions were “absolutely in line” with her group’s plans.

Gerard Mestrallet, chairman of Suez, the utilities group, was equally supportive.

He said: “For Europe nuclear energy is a response to the gas crisis.”