"There are no Jordanian-Israeli projects in the field of nuclear energy," Khaled Tukan, head of Jordan's Atomic Energy Commission, told state-run Petra news agency in Paris, where he is taking part in a conference hosted by France.

Israeli officials said on Monday that a nuclear power plant to meet the region's energy needs and promote peace would be a joint project between Israel and Jordan, and that France would supervise and provide technology.

"It's an old proposal provided by the Israeli energy minister to his French counterpart several months ago," Tukan said.

"We had nothing to do with this proposal, and it's premature to talk about any Jordanian-Israeli nuclear cooperation before finding a solution to the Palestinian issue."

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, "seeks to cooperate with countries that are signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," he was quoted as saying.

Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and has said it will not sign up for a Middle East nuclear-free zone being promoted by the United States.

But the Jewish state has two nuclear reactors, one near the southeast city of Dimona that is widely believed to be used to produce atomic weapons, and a second research reactor at Nahal Soreq near Tel Aviv.

Israel refuses to confirm or deny it has a nuclear arsenal, pursuing instead what it calls a policy of "nuclear ambiguity."

The desert kingdom of Jordan, which imports around 95 percent of its energy needs, has announced plans to build its own nuclear plant and produce atomic power to meet growing energy demands and desalinate water.

Jordan is the latest Sunni Arab country, including Egypt and pro-Western Gulf states, to announce plans for nuclear power programmes in the face of Shiite Iran's controversial atomic drive.

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