"All indicators suggest that electricity company CEZ soon will ask the nuclear safety office (SUJB) to launch an authorization procedure for the construction of additional elements," Martin Pecina, the industry vice minister and a member of the CEZ supervisory council, was quoted as saying in the newspaper Dnes.

The request for authorization to enlarge the Temelin plant with two new reactors could be made in the coming year, he added.

In November, Pecina had defended the plan to construct the two new reactors, set for 2009, at the southwestern Temelin site, but he was made to backtrack from that position by Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla.

The Temelin plant, built under the former communist regime, has two Soviet-design 1,000 megawatt reactors. Its security and control systems were made by Westinghouse of the United States.

Temelin's first reactor went onstream in October 2000 despite repeated technical problems, and the second reactor is at full power, but in a trial phase.

Located just 60 kilometres (36 miles) across the border from Austria, the Temelin plant has soured Prague's relations with nuclear-free neighbour Austria, which has demanded safety and environmental guarantees.

Pecina's comments came as Austrian political parties, in high campaign gear for the European elections in June, have made the nuclear issue a top issue, especially as they decry a plan by neighboring Slovakia to build new reactors.

Austria renounced nuclear power and halted the construction of a plan after a referendum lost by the government in 1978.

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