Pakistan seeks two nuclear power plants from China

Islamabad, June 11: Pakistan is seeking two more nuclear power plants worth 1.2 billion dollars from China, sources told 'Dawn' here.

The issue is expected to be finalised between the two countries after the conclusion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit scheduled for June 15 in Shanghai.

The sources said yesterday that President Pervez Musharraf, who was representing Pakistan at the summit, would hold wide-ranging talks with his Chinese counterpart for enhancing economic and defence cooperation between the two nations.

However, the president's emphasis will be on the purchase of two power plants of 300 megawatts each so that Pakistan's growing energy requirements may be met to some extent, Dawn said.

According to the daily, the president is taking with him a brief prepared by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission about the country's 88,000MW nuclear energy requirements by 2030. He will apprise the Chinese leadership about the Bush administration's reservations in treating Pakistan at par with India for extending civilian nuclear cooperation.

The paper said that since Pakistan is among the fastest growing economies like India, it is desperately seeking foreign cooperation, particularly from the United States, the European Union and China, for adequately developing its future nuclear energy programme.

Although the US and Pakistan's western allies have not refused point blank to provide nuclear energy cooperation, they continue to express their reservations about nuclear proliferation. This has compelled Pakistan to seek more nuclear power plants from China, preferably in 2007, the sources said.

They said Pakistan and the US were resuming their energy dialogue in Washington at the end of the month or in early July.

UNI