The North Sea could become "the Gulf of the future" for wind-power thanks to the development of off-shore windfarms in the coming years, Prime Minister Gordon Brown will tell fellow EU leaders.

He will also urge them to build an equivalent role for the Mediterranean in solar generation as part of a multi-billion pound drive for "green" renewable energy technology.

Speaking at the inaugural summit of the Union for the Mediterranean in Paris, Mr Brown will call on the European Investment Bank - which already has a 3 billion euro (£2.4bn) fund to support low-carbon technology projects around the world - to increase its spending on green electricity generation in Europe.

Mr Brown joined 42 other heads of state and government representing almost 800 million people from the EU, north Africa and the Middle East for the first meeting of the new Union, which is designed to cement partnership and co-operation between Europe and the countries of the Mediterranean.

He is expected to use discussions with European leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to push for extended EU sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.

After Russia and China blocked a worldwide sanctions package at Friday's vote in the United Nations Security Council, Mr Brown now wants to work through the EU to expand the current travel ban on leading regime figures and to take measures against companies owned by them.

He may also raise the Middle East peace process in informal discussions on the margins of a gathering which brings together leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon.

There were hopeful signs for the peace process in the run-up to the summit, with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert saying agreement had never been as close as it is now, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas saying both sides are serious and want peace.

Following on from last week's G8 summit in Japan, Mr Brown will push his message that the world must shift away from dependence on climate change-causing fossil fuels and re-equip itself for a low-carbon future.

He will tell the summit that the years of cheap energy and careless pollution are behind us and that past reliance on oil must give way to a clean energy future.

With increases in oil and food prices causing hardship to households and businesses in the UK and throughout Europe, he will say that oil dependency poses a threat to economic stability and family finances and is not environmentally sustainable.

Pointing to windfarm developments which will this year see the UK overtake Denmark as the country with the largest offshore wind capacity in the world, Mr Brown will say that the North Sea has the potential to become "the Gulf of the future" for wind power.

And he will back proposals for a "solar plan" for the Mediterranean, which could make the region a vital source of future global energy by harnessing the power of the sun.

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