Bulgaria would seek a one-week extension of time the European Union's peer review of units 3, 4 of the country's only nuclear power plant in the town of Kozloduy. Milko Kovachev, Bulgaria's energy minister, has prepared a letter to request extension from the European Commission.

"I think that we could reach an agreement," Kovachev added.

The EU peer review is set for November 17-19. Bulgaria's government has agreed to close the two 440-megawatt units by 2006 under pressure from the Union.

However, Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov insisted that the country has serious reasons to demand a later deadline. He, joined by Euro-integration Minister Meglena Kuneva, had pressed for conducting the peer review by the end of 2003.

"Over the last 12 years we completed some important reconstruction works in the reactors, and a number of foreign experts voiced appreciation for the high safety level," the country's Energy Minister Milko Kovachev has said. He claimed that those appraisals proved that modernization efforts had the desired effect.

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