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By John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau
AMIENS, France, March 3 (Reuters) - France and Britainplanned on Thursday to announce a 1.5 billion pound ($2.11billion) project to build a next-generation drone prototype asthe two allies seek to increase security and military ties at atime of conflict in Syria and Libya.
President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister David Cameronwere meeting in northern France as part of a bi-annual summit also commemorating the centenary later this year of the Battleof the Somme in which 600,000 British and French soldiers died.
Cameron was expected to also use the visit to argue that continued European Union membership will enhance Britain'ssecurity as he lobbies for it to stay in the 28-nation blocahead of a June 23 referendum on the issue.
"I am convinced that the UK's membership of the EU gives usgreater security and greater capacity to project powerglobally," Cameron said in comments released by his officebefore the meeting in Amiens, 120 km (75 miles) north of Paris.
Officials from both sides said part of the summit's focuswould be on forging closer police and counter-terrorism ties.
France and Britain, both permanent veto-wielding members ofthe United Nations Security Council, are engaged in air strikeson Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Hollande and Cameron are also backers of the "moderate"Syrian opposition. They are likely to issue a new call forSyrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and allies includingRussia to stop targeting rebel forces despite a new cessation ofhostilities deal and to allow more aid to reach besieged areas.
Britain and France have special forces operating againstIslamic State in Libya too amid international efforts to unifytwo rival governments and loosen militants' foothold there.
"This summit is the opportunity to strengthen our closepartnership," said a senior French official. "Defence is morecrucial than ever because we are facing serious crises on oureastern and southern fronts."
To that end, Cameron and Hollande will announce a project tobuild a prototype of the next generation of unmanned droneaircraft that would be able to conduct surveillance of securitythreats and fire missiles at targets.
Each side is to contribute about 750 million pounds.
The Future Combat Air System project to develop the mostadvanced drone of its kind in Europe builds on a120-million-pound joint feasibility study undertaken agreed in2014.
Britain's BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, alongwith Dassault Aviation, Safran and Thales of France, are taking part.
An update is also expected on French energy group EDF's planned 18-billion-pound construction of two nuclearreactors at Hinkley Point in western England.
Controversy over the thousands of migrants camped near thenorthern French port town of Calais is another theme of thesummit, It dominated UK media coverage of the meeting onThursday after France's economy minister said a British exitfrom the EU would let migrants into Britain. ($1 = 0.7113 pounds) (Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by AndrewCallus and Mark Heinrich)