German minister warns Brussels against atom power

BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) Germany's anti-nuclear Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned the European Commission against putting undue emphasis on atomic power in its energy policy to be unveiled today.

Germany took over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on January 1. The Commission, the bloc's executive, is expected to put climate change at the centre of its policy.

''If they put excessive emphasis on atomic energy in their energy policy, then we'll have a debate with the Commission,'' Gabriel told Germany's ARD television today.

Gabriel is a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is in a power-sharing ''grand coalition'' with Chancellor Angela Merkel's more nuclear-friendly conservatives.

The SPD is fiercely opposed to atomic energy.

In response to Russia's decision to halt oil exports via a major oil pipeline across Belarus to Europe, Merkel has called on Germany to reconsider plans to phase out nuclear energy by the early 2020s in keeping with a law passed by the previous government of the SPD and the Greens.

''We should consider what consequences it will have if we shut off our nuclear power plants,'' Merkel said on Monday in response to the Russian pipeline move.

Russia has halted exports through the Druzhba pipeline, cutting supplies to Poland, Germany and several central European countries. Moscow said on Monday it was forced to act because Belarus was illegally siphoning off oil.

Conservative Economy Minister Michael Glos said it was ''urgently necessary'' to rethink the nuclear phase-out plan.

Gabriel said most of the EU's 27 member states held official positions similar to his, favouring the gradual decommissioning of nuclear power plants and replacing them with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power.

Merkel has called for Germany and the EU to reduce their dependency on Russian oil and gas exports by diversifying Europe's energy mix.

Nuclear energy has been making a comeback in recent years, partly because it produces virtually no ''greenhouse gases'', considered to be a key factor in climate change.

REUTERS AKJ HS1421