European Union and Japan have agreed to a July deadline for deciding who should host the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

The six partners involved in the project are divided in support for competing bids from Japan and France to host the site of the $13 billion dollar project known as ITER.

The six parties involved are the EU, Japan, China, the United States, Russia and South Korea.

To help resolve the deadlock, European Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik met with Japanese minister of science and technology, Nariaki Nakayama in Japan.

“They undertook to accelerate their discussion on the agreed roles of host and non-host and will aim to reach an international agreement among 6 parties on the issue of the ITER site before July 2005,” the Commission said.

The European Union has indicated it would go it alone if it could not reach an agreement with Japan but prefers to proceed with all partners on board.

Previously Japan has balked at holding high-level over ITER, which Japan wants to build in the fishing village of Rokkasho but the EU wants in Cadarache, France.