France and the European Union called Friday on Japan to open up to foreign railway companies, saying Japanese firms were already allowed to do business in Europe.

"We need reciprocity in the rail sector," French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau said in Tokyo, where he was taking part in a conference on global warming.

Japan's Shinkansen and France's TGV vie for the title of the world's fastest train and both countries have aggressively marketed their industries overseas.

Bussereau said that he and the EU transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, urged in meetings in Tokyo that "the Japanese rail market not be closed to European industry at a moment when Europe is opening to Japan."

"There are already high-speed Japanese trains in Spain and recently, a British company bought Japanese rail carriages for the Eurostar to serve ... London, in particular the future Olympic station," Bussereau said.

But he complained that France's Alstom, Germany's Siemens and the European arm of Canada's Bombardier were "almost absent on the Japanese market."

He doubted Japan's explanation, presented to the World Trade Organisation, that the absence was due to security standards on critical equipment.

"Some people think that there is a bit of a broad interpretation of what is critical," Bussereau said.

The French minister also renewed European calls for Japanese airlines to buy planes from Airbus, a unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).

Japanese companies buy almost exclusively from its rival Boeing, with which Japanese industry has longstanding business contracts.

"If the Japanese market opens to Airbus, it's not unforeseeable for EADS and Airbus to open more to subcontracting," Bussereau said.

Japan's All Nippon Airways recently put off a decision to buy new jumbos -- either the Airbus A380 superjumbo or Boeing 747-8 -- as the economic crisis hits demand for air travel.