The European Commission (EC) had not received any request from Bulgaria to restart units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP), Eurocommissioner Meglena Kouneva was quoted as saying by Focos news agency on December 7.

A day earlier, Bulgarian president Georgi Purvanov had said the two units were needed to cope with the crisis that resulted from the cutting off of Russian natural gas supplies on December 5.

Unit 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy NPP were shut down as part of Bulgaria's European Union accession. The country received 550 million euro in compensation for shutting down the units.

Bulgarian politicians have in the past repeated pleaded for the restarting of the mothballed units.

On December 6, Purvanov argued that the country's EU Accession Treaty contained a clause which, according to Purvanov, would allow restarting the units.

Kouneva said she had talked with EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and said she had asked him what his position on the request was. "The commission has not received such a request from Bulgaria," Piebalgs was quoted as having replied.

Purvanov, meanwhile, on December 7 issued a statement, saying that all tha was necessary had been done to mobilise Bulgaria's resources, especially concerning gas storages Chiren and Galata. A natural gas supply of 4 million cu m a day could be guaranteed, Purvanov was quoted as saying by Focus news agency.

According to Purvanov, this meant the country had enough gas to continue at current usage levels for 90 to 100 days.

"I feel I can say that all the necessary has been done to avoid the shutting down of heating and electricity," Purvanov was quoted as saying. "There are of course limitations, especially when we now switch to the use of residual fuel, but those are technological limitations," he said.

According to Purvanov, a balance had been reach to compensate for the consequences of the gas crisis, Focus news agency said