Bulgaria's government will make up its mind whether to go ahead with its second nuclear power plant project or not only after the assessment by consultant HSBC is ready, the prime minister has said.

"A contract for consultancy services will be signed very soon with HSBC and its conclusions will be the answer to the question whether or not Belene nuclear power plant will be built," Boyko Borisov said in an interview for TV7 on Thursday.

"It makes no difference what Parvanov, Borisov or Kostov say. There are huge companies, which employ the best experts in the energy sector. Let them come to Bulgaria and tell us what to do with Belene," he added, referring to the president and a right-wing leader.

The statement came a day after Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom demanded that an agreement with Bulgaria on the construction of Belene nuclear power plant is reached by the end of this month.

Speaking during an unexpected visit to Sofia, Rosatom representatives said they will not haggle with Bulgaria for the price of the construction of the 2000-MW Belene nuclear plant as it has already been set at EUR 6.3 B.

Sofia insists it will pay no more than EUR 5 M.

"The price of the nuclear reactors will not decrease since the units have already been produced. If we don't take them, somebody else will," Borisov said on Thursday.

The plant was originally to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport for EUR 4 B. The firm had signed a contract with the previous, Socialist-led government, swept from power by Borisov's conservative GERB party swept in last year's July elections.

Due to the delays in the launch of the construction works, stalled over price disputes and funding problems, Russia now says the project construction price should be increased to EUR 6.3 B.

Bulgaria's new center-right government suspended the construction of the nuclear power plant last year until it finds a new investor and funds to complete the project at Belene, on the Danube, 180 kilometres northeast of the capital Sofia.

The Bulgarian Energy Holding picked in November 2010 HSBC, one of UK's biggest banks, for a consultant to help it decide how to proceed and attract new investors for the planned Belene nuclear power plant.

Six candidates submitted at the end of March documents to bid in the tender opened by the Bulgarian Energy Holding for Belene consultant - HSBC, Societe Generale, KPMG in a consortium with McGuire, Rothschild, Argil, and Ernst & Young.

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