level meeting. Germany was convinced that members of the European Union should pay greater attention to research in the energy sector in order to remain on a par with the United States, the source said. The talks come during upheaval in the European energy sector amid a rash of takeover bids, government attempts to shape the market and uncertainty about the security of Russian natural gas supplies. France has come under fire from the European Commission for its sudden decision to arrange a merger between energy firms Suez and state-controlled Gaz de France (GDF) in a bid to head off a takeover by Italy's Enel. The Commission said last week that France may have violated European Union law by engineering the merger, which French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope described as an act of "economic patriotism." --More 18 39 Local Time 15 39 GMT
