The project will be proposed next month by a group including Thomson SA and Deutsche Telekom AG to a 2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) agency France is setting up to back industrial innovation, according to documents provided by Chirac's aides.

``We're engaged in a global competition for technological supremacy,'' Chirac, 72, said today in a speech in Reims, France.

``In France, in Europe, it's our power that's at stake.''

Chirac's intention to provide forgivable loans to a Franco-German ``multimedia search engine for the Internet'' reflects his concern about what he has said is the omnipresence of Anglo-Saxon culture. His government is pushing to create an online library to rival one planned by Google, the most-used Web search engine.

``Culture is not merchandise and it cannot be left to the blind forces of the market,'' Chirac said in a May 2 speech. ``We must staunchly defend the world's diversity of cultures against the looming threat of uniformity.''

The industrial innovation agency, which Chirac promoted in his visit to the Champagne region, will back new businesses in industries such as biotechnology, solar energy and information technology, he said.

Jean-Louis Beffa, chairman of glassmaker Cie. De Saint-Gobain SA and head of the agency, said today loans would range between 20 million euros and 100 million euros.

Among the first projects it's considering are an effort to improve mobile phones by France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom; a medical-equipment project led by Siemens SA and a biotechnology proposal led by Thales SA, according to briefing documents.