Sarkozy urged the West to trust Arab countries with nuclear technology yesterday as he signed a deal that could lead to France supplying Libya with a new reactor.

During a meeting with Colonel Muammar Gadhafi in Libya, Mr. Sarkozy agreed to help the country with a nuclear-powered project to desalinate seawater. France has Europe’s largest civil nuclear power industry and a vital commercial interest in exporting reactors and technology.

The Libyan reactor could be supplied by France’s leading nuclear energy company, Areva. Until he invited international inspectors into Libya in 2003, Colonel Gadhafi had a covert nuclear weapons program.

But Mr. Sarkozy denied that the new deal came with any risks attached. “Nuclear power is the energy of the future,” he said. “If we don’t give the energy of the future to the countries of the southern Mediterranean, how will they develop themselves?”

The president added that if the West considered that Arab countries were “not sensible enough to use civilian nuclear power,” this would risk a “war of civilizations.” Mr. Sarkozy’s visit to Libya and the nuclear deal both came immediately after the release of six Bulgarian medical personnel and one Palestinian Arab, all of whom had been sentenced to death for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with HIV.

Mr. Sarkozy denied that the nuclear agreement was linked to Colonel Gadhafi’s decision to free the prisoners, who had spent almost eight years in Libyan jails.