French Finance Minister Thierry Breton urged the U.S. and other leading oil-consuming nations to invest in nuclear and other alternative energies, and criticized countries that subsidize oil consumption or don't tax it enough.

``We must reduce oil subsidies where they exist, encourage through taxation a development model which is more respectful of fossil resources,'' Breton said today in a speech before the International Monetary and Financial Committee of the International Monetary Fund in Washington. ``Developing alternative energies, nuclear energy in particular,'' is essential to prepare for ``post-oil'' times, he said.

Bloomberg