Dec 8, 2006, 14:04 GMT
Vilnius - In a bid to boost their energy security, Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania agreed Frdiay to build a new nuclear energy facility to replace Lithuania's Soviet-era Ignalina reactor.
Senior leaders of the three countries, meeting in Vilnius, also invited fellow European Union member Poland to participate in the project.
'We have to continue with the existing project without any stops. If there are other partners in the process, including Poland, we are ready to start consultations, but the main priority is not to stop the project,' Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said, quoted by the Baltic News Service (BNS) Friday.
Domestic political woes prevented Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was from taking part in the Friday meeting of Baltic leaders focused on Ignalina.
'We are not halting the project. If the Poles present their proposals on time, everything will be all right. And as far as their conditions are concerned, this is another matter,' Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said.
Kirkilas expects the first new reactor at Ignalina to be ready for action by 2015. The existing Soviet-built reactor at Ignalina is due to be unplugged in 2009 in line with an EU agreement.
According to initial estimates, the planned new 800-1,600 megawatt Ignalina facility is likely to cost up to 4 billion euros.
Lietuvos Energija and its counterparts in Latvia and Estonia, Latvenergo and Eesti Energia, have expressed interest in the project. Czech state-run energy giant CEZ, France's Areva and E.ON Nordic have also done so.
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