France, Spain leaders to hold summit on Jan 19 - Macron

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will meet again in Spain on Jan. 19, Macron said in a tweet on Friday following a summit of nine Mediterranean countries in the Spanish city of Alicante.

The announcement of the summit is a sign of warmer relations following several months of tensions about the MidCat gas pipeline project across the Pyrenees, which Macron was not in favour of.

Instead of the MidCat gas pipeline, the two countries - with Portugal - on Friday announced the construction of an underwater hydrogen pipeline between Barcelona and Marseille.

"We will continue to work together, dear Pedro. And since our countries have so much to share and our peoples have so much in common, we will meet again on Jan. 19 in Spain to go further together," Macron said.

Several sources in Paris and Madrid said that the two leaders are working on drafting a new Franco-Spanish friendship and cooperation treaty.

(Reporting by Belen Carreno in Alicante and Michel Rose, Elizabeth Pineau and Bertrand Boucey in Paris; writing by Geert De Clercq, Editing by Sandra Maler)