PARIS, June 28 (Xinhua) -- French President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday that he would present a new proposal for Africa's development at the upcoming G8 summit.

France will continue to reiterate the importance of expanding exports of African products at the summit, Chirac told representatives of some non-governmental organizations.

France thinks that African countries have not yet acquired conditions for carrying out free trade with developed countries and must strengthen protection of their domestic markets and expand their exports, Chirac said.

He said Europe should carried out in-depth studies on a European-African cooperation agreement on the basis of free trade.

He said France would make efforts at the summit to persuade the United States to cancel its subsidies on cotton, which is strongly demanded by African cotton producers and requested by the WTO.

When asked about climate change, Chirac said he was "not optimistic" about achievements at the summit.

"I won't hide the fact that negotiations are currently very difficult," he said.

France expects to set up a framework for global control of greenhouse gas emissions as from 2012 at the G8 summit.

Leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States will meet on July 6-8 in Britain.

Source: Xinhua