Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi welcomes visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) in Tripoli, July 25, 2007. Sarkozy Monday denied reports that France planned to sell a latest generation nuclear reactor to Libya.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is vacationing at a seaside cottage in northeast U.S. New Hampshire, denied on Monday reports that France planned to sell a latest generation nuclear reactor to Libya.

"It's false. It's false," Sarkozy said when asked by reporters about reports of a prospective sale of a EPR (European Pressurized Reactor) nuclear reactor.

A memorandum on building a reactor for desalination was signed as Sarkozy held talks with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on July 25, 2007,a day after Tripoli freed six foreign medics who were convicted of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus..

France played a key role, along with EU officials, in securing the release of the six people after they were commuted from death sentence to life in prison.

The United States supported France's plans to build the reactor in Libya, which critics fear could be used by Libya to create a nuclear weapon.

"I expect ... that the French government would pay full attention to making sure that any safeguard will be implemented in any sort of deal," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

U.S. President Bush met with Nicolas on Saturday at the Bush's family home in Kennebunkport, Maine with the two sides having talks over a lot of issues in the "casual" lunch, White House officials said.