PARIS, May 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said Tuesday here that the European Union said "yes" to the European digital library program to counter Google's giant book on-line plans.

    "We have to act," said Juncker at a meeting of culture ministers and 800 artists and intellectuals in Paris.

    "That's why I say yes to the initiative of the French president (Jacques Chirac) to launch a European digital library," he said.

    "I say yes because Europe must not submit in the face of virulent attacks from others," he added.

    Six EU members, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain, on Thursday asked the EU to launch a European digital library to coordinate national library activities.

    This initiative came the day following 19 European national libraries launched a common motion to counter Google's giant book on-line program launched in 2004.

    In December Michigan University and four other libraries, Harvard, Stanford, New York Public Library and the Bodleian in Oxford, announced they had made a deal with Google to digitize millions of books and give free access online.

    The entire project is still expected to take up to 10 years, with a cost estimated at between 150 million and 200 million dollars. Enditem¡¡