PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in French power utility EDF (>> EDF) climbed by 3 percent in early trade on Tuesday after Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said there were no plans for a full merger with lossmaking and indebted nuclear group Areva (>> AREVA).

Macron told Reuters on Monday that EDF help for Areva was focussed on forging an industrial alliance, with any capital to be injected by EDF only in Areva's reactor business. He was knocking down a suggestion from Energy Minister Segolene Royal that a full merger was a possibility.

"The scenario envisaged by Emmanuel Macron seems to me much more credible from a financial aand economic point of view," said a Paris-based trader.

"We have been lacking visibility with announcements that have been a bit all over the place. I'm still being careful though with both EDF and Areva while nothing seems certain."

(Reporting by Alexandre Boksenbaum-Granier; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Blaise Robinson)

Stocks treated in this article : EDF, AREVA