Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende trod carefully Friday, telling journalists that although the closure of the Borssele nuclear plant was still the "current policy" the debate on nuclear energy "was not standing still."

Two government ministers this week suggested the plant should stay open beyond its scheduled 2013 closing date, opening up a tussle with environmentalists over the plant's role in the new Kyoto regime.

Christian democrat Foreign Minister Ben Bot fired the opening shot Monday, saying the Netherlands should not become too dependent on conflict areas for energy and fuel sources and pleading for the use of "clean nuclear power".

"I'm not saying we should build nuclear power plants ourselves but we should not close our eyes to the energy problem that will arise in future," Bot said.

Deputy minister for the environment Pieter van Geel, also a Christian democrat, linked the closure of Borssele to the need for renewable energy.

"We must realize that closing Borssele will cost hundreds of millions of euros and we will not get any renewable energy in return," Van Geel told the NRC-Handelsblad paper Wednesday.

Closing Borssele would likely cost the government a lot of money, which it could otherwise use to develop renewable energy to combat global warming, he said.

"We could look into keeping the plant open under certain conditions but it will be up to parliament to decide."

Environmentalists reacted angrily.

"The timing of this announcement has a lot to do with the entry into effect of the Kyoto Protocol. They are using people's fears about global warming by offering nuclear energy as a new option," said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner for the Netherlands, Rianne Teule.

"Nuclear energy is not clean energy, you are replacing one set of environmental hazards with another," she said.

The debate could prove a problem for the ruling centre-right coalition because the reformist D66 party has refused to relent on its opposition to extending the life of the plant.

The closure of the Borssele plant by 2013 had been agreed upon by the parties in the coalition agreement before they came to power.

The Netherlands has been working towards a nuclear-free policy for years.

The country already imports about 20 percent of its energy from neighbouring countries and much of that is nuclear energy from countries like France. The Borssele nuclear plant provides about four percent of the energy consumed in the Netherlands.

An opinion poll carried out Wednesday showed that 66 percent of the respondents backed plans to keep the nuclear power plant open. Only 23 percent were against all attempts to keep Borssele functioning after 2003.

The parliament will debate the matter in the coming weeks. The lawmakers are the only ones who can change the earlier decision of the cabinet about the closing.

The Kyoto Protocol took effect Wednesday, supported by 141 nations but boycotted by the world's biggest polluter, the United States.

The Protocol requires industrialized countries that have signed and ratified it to reduce or stabilize their emissions of six greenhouse" gases, the most important of which is carbon dioxide (CO2).

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