French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Turkmenistan's leader agreed Monday to strengthen their co-operation and expand trade in energy, tourism and communications.
Sarkozy hosted a working lunch at the Elysee palace for Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who was making his first visit to France since he took power in the Central Asian state in 2006.
The leaders pledged in a statement to "encourage the strengthening of their friendship ties and develop bilateral co-operation" and singled out energy, infrastructure, tourism and communications as areas of interest.
Several French companies are vying for contracts in Turkmenistan such as hotel chain Accor SA (AC.FR), communications giant Thales SA (HO.FR), engineering firm Vinci SA (DG.FR) and Bouygues SA (EN.FR), which wants to build the new airport in the capital Ashgabat.
"Our trade relations have been energized since 2007 but we want to go further," said a French official.
Sarkozy and Berdymukhamedov discussed Turkmenistan's rich gas reserves and stressed "the need to strengthen efforts to ensure a stable and peaceful transit of energy resources toward international markets."
Turkmenistan is believed to hold the world's fourth largest reserves of natural gas, the vast majority of which is shipped to Europe through Russia and its aging network of Soviet-era pipelines.
Turkmenistan saw exports of natural gas almost entirely halted last year following a pricing row with Moscow and has since signaled a willingness to engage with the European Union over possible alternative energy routes.
Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders had called on Sarkozy to raise human rights during their meeting and encourage Turkmenistan to open up to political plurality and other freedoms.