AFP quoted French minister as saying that Paris was allocating EUR 103 million to help finance Morocco's solar energy plan.

Mr Eric Besson industry and energy minister of France made the announcement on a visit to Rabat where he met his Moroccan counterpart Amina Benkhadra. He said that the funds would be disbursed by the French Development Agency for a project he described as the centerpiece of the Mediterranean solar plan.

Morocco announced in 2009 it was launching a project to produce 2,000 megawatts of solar generated electricity at a cost of USD 9 billion. The program is expected to become operational in 2020 when production will cover 42% of the country's electricity needs.

Mr Besson said that Paris and Rabat would seal a deal by year's end for the long term purchase of clean electricity from Morocco. France, Spain and Morocco will also cooperate to boost their electrical interconnection networks with a summit on the issue planned before the end of the year.

(Sourced from AFP)