CHIRAC, REAGAN DISCUSS ARMS CONTROL, TRADE French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac opened talks with President Ronald Reagan expected to focus on superpower arms control moves and trade issues. French officials said a major aim of Chirac's visit was to present France's concern that the United States might ignore European security interests in any accord with Moscow on removing medium-range nuclear missiles from the continent. But Reagan was expected to assure Chirac that he will not agree to a deal at the Geneva superpower talks that would give the Russians superiority in shorter-range systems, diplomats said. France has expressed doubts about removing U.S. missiles from Europe so long as the Soviet Union maintains an edge in other weaponry, particularly shorter-range rockets, conventional forces and chemical weapons. Speaking last night, Chirac set out the French position saying: "Any agreement on intermediate nuclear forces should mention how equality can be achieved in short-range missiles." Reagan and Chirac meanwhile signed an agreement ending a dispute between two leading research institutes over patent rights to a blood screening test for the deadly disease AIDS. In a joint statement, Chirac and Reagan said the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the National Cancer Institute, of Bethesda, Maryland, agreed to give part of the royalties from the test to a new foundation dedicated to the wordwide fight against AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). "This agreement opens a new era in Franco-American cooperation, allowing France and the United States to join their efforts to control this terrible disease in the hopes of speeding the development of an AIDS vaccine and cure," Reagan said at the signing ceremony. He said the two parties would share the patent and give 80 per cent of the royalties received to the new foundation. The foundation would also raise private funds and would donate 25 per cent of its money to combat AIDS in less developed countries. Both leaders stressed the long ties between France and the United States during a welcoming ceremony in the White House East Room, with Reagan describing France as "America's oldest ally in war and peace." "I have come to tell you that we are remain motivated by the same ideals of freedom, by the same will to face the dangers which we both confront -- terrorism, war, hunger, poverty, new diseases and drugs," Chirac replied. But the two countries are likely to have less to agree on over the issue of trade, where Chirac is worried about a rise in protectionism in the U.S. Congress. A senior U.S. official yesterday dismissed a French idea to sell cut-price grain to poor countries in Africa as a way of lessening surplus stocks. Chirac is expected to canvass support for the idea, first proposed by French Agriculture Minister Francois Guillaume, during his two-day visit to Washington. The U.S. official described the idea as a "grain producers' OPEC" -- a reference to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- and said it went against the Reagan administration's desire to lessen government intervention in trade.