Lithuania to resume nuclear plant talks: PM

Lithuania will resume talks with Estonia and Latvia on a new nuclear power plant, its prime minister said Monday, months after voters rejected the plan in a non-binding referendum.

"We say Lithuania should be a nuclear energy country," Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius told reporters after meeting with senior government members on the topic.

Butkevicius had tasked experts to analyse the issue after 63 percent of voters cast "no" ballots in an October referendum held in tandem with general elections.

Voters had rejected plans to build a new plant to replace the Baltic state's lone nuclear power station, a Soviet-era facility shut down under the terms of its EU entry.

But on Monday, Butkevicius said he had given the power company the go-ahead to negotiate with neighbours Latvia, Estonia and Japan's Hitachi, which was tapped to construct the plant in northeast Lithuania.

He raised conditions for the project, however, saying the company would have to secure better terms than those in a draft contract.

A plan formulated by the previous government said the plant was expected to generate 1,350 megawatts from 2020-2022, though final investment decisions were due only in 2015.

The current government is obliged to submit a plan to parliament by mid-May.