New York, May 14: Mr. Jimmy Carter, the likely choice of Democrats to contest the U.S. Presidency, yesterday indirectly assailed President Ford for failure to persuade France and the Federal Republic of Germany at summit level to halt the sale of nuclear reprocessing plants to other countries.

Mr. Carter was addressing a private meeting held at the United Nations on “nuclear energy and world order.” The meeting, addressed among others by Dr. S. Eklund, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency based at Vienna, was organised by a number of private organisations devoted to science and humanistic problems.

Mr. Carter’s address was significant in that it disclosed his thinking on the nuclear question that he might implement in the event of his election as the next U.S. President in the November contest. While Mr. Carter did not name any country in his speech, sources close to him said he was having in mind the agreements concluded by France and the Federal Republic of Germany to sell nuclear reprocessing plants to Pakistan and Brazil and the earlier moves to sell them to South Korea.