But the push for a new energy policy in the 25-nation bloc, fuelled by concerns over rising dependence on imports from countries such as Russia, has put nuclear back in the picture.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said earlier this month that the replacement of Britain's ageing nuclear power plants was on the agenda once more due to global warming and rising reliance on imported energy.

His comments have drawn a mixed response within the bloc, and interviews with ministers at a meeting in Austria at the weekend revealed the depths of the divide.

"Nuclear power from our point of view isn't the future," Austrian environment minister Josef Proell told Reuters.

Austria, which holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, will stage a discussion in the European Parliament in June to discuss "strategic planning" on nuclear energy.

Proell said his country would try to convince its partners to look at other sources such as renewable energy and to step up investment in security if they did pursue the nuclear path.

"We want to give them alternatives," he said.

Finnish Environment Minister Jan-Erik Enestam said he did not want to be an advocate for nuclear but that climate change, which scientists blame on emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2, made it a necessary, if temporary, solution.

"Climate change will bring new elements to the discussion. It's not that black and white anymore," Enestam said.

"If you have to choose among the existing resources and existing technology, you can't exclude nuclear power."

Enestam said a fifth nuclear plant in Finland would decrease the country's CO2 emissions by 10 million tonnes from their present levels.

He said Finland, which wants to avoid high-polluting coal and has a population that generally supports nuclear power, preferred building its own plants to importing nuclear-generated electricity from Russia.

"In Finland you have to choose between two evils: nuclear power or coal, and nuclear power is not as bad as coal."

SAFETY FEARS

But as the recent 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster showed, worries about nuclear safety remain high.

"In our country more than 60 percent of society is against nuclear," Latvian Environment Minister Raimonds Vejonis told Reuters.

He said citizens worried about waste storage, ground water pollution and the risk of earthquakes with nuclear power plants close by in neighbouring Lithuania, from which Latvia imports some of its electricity.

Though Latvia produces a lot of its own energy, mostly from renewable sources, the country will suffer after 2009 when Lithuania closes nuclear plants, Vejonis said. The Latvian government is discussing how to compensate for that expected import loss.

Germany also plans to phase out nuclear power, though the conservatives in the coalition government have called that move into question.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said nuclear would leave a problematic legacy.

"Is it fair to solve our energy problems and to put the waste to future generations?" he said.