The Shah of Iran and French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing met at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday (20 May) for talks aimed largely at finding ways of coaxing oil producers and consumers back to the same conference table.

French officials said the luncheon talks might lead to a new French initiative to reconvene a preparatory meeting for the proposed producer-consumer conference that broke down in Paris last month when its participants, most notably the United States, failed to agree on an agenda.

France has never considered the breakdown of the preparatory meeting as final and hopes that the Shah -- one of the more moderate voices among the oil producers -- can bring the two sides back together.

The officials believe the United States might now agree to broaden the agenda of the proposed conference in view of the Shah's warning in Washington last Sunday (18 May) that he will press oil producers to increase prices to keep pace with world inflation.

The French President and the Shah -- who was in Paris on a private visit with his wife -- were also expected to discuss the building of nuclear power plants in Iran as well as trade and other technological co-operation.