By Paras Ramoutar

Port-of-Spain, Nov 28 (IANS) French President Nicholas Sarkozy has requested the Indian prime minister to attend the forthcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen and Manmohan Singh has assured him at the ongoing Commonwealth meet at this Trinidad and Tobago capital that he would discuss the proposal with his cabinet colleagues.

Sarkozy told a press conference at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) press centre that he has encouraged Manmohan Singh to attend the parley, especially during Dec 17-18 when major decisions would have to be taken.

He said Manmohan Singh has told him that when he returns to India, he would discuss the proposal with his cabinet about attending the Copenhagen meeting.

The French president stated that he plans to visit India by March or April 2010 to finalise the transfer of nuclear technology agreements between India and France.

Talking about carbon emissions, Sarkozy said that he has proposed a world governance body to monitor it.

He stressed that he has held discussions with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the establishment of a $10 billion fund to assist poor countries in sorting out the problems caused by climate change, and added that India could benefit from this fund.

This fund could come into fruition by 2010 or 2011.

"We want India's voice to be heard at this international meeting," Sarkozy said, expressing the hope that the Copenhagen talks would be "productive, intense and progressive".

He said that at the Copenhagen meeting "decisions would need to be made, and failure is not an option".

Sarkozy said that he was confident that India would not stand in the way of a successful conference.

He said that the Copenhagen meeting is a historic meeting and he was confident that all the challenges would be surpassed. "If we fail in Copenhagen, all will fail."