German utility RWE was not pulling out of the Bulgarian nuclear station at Belene, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said on September 28, as quoted by Bulgarian National Radio.

Picked to buy 49 per cent in the future project company, RWE has not committed any funding for the project and was reported to be considering a complete withdrawal over rising costs.

But Borissov, who met RWE chief executive Juergen Grossman earlier in the day, said that the German company was still interested in Belene. "The German side wants to continue. When we are ready, we will give our verdict on the fate of the project by the end of October," Borissov said.

Borissov's Cabinet, which took office at the end of July, has been critical of how the project has been managed so far and has started a "legal and financial audit" of it. Borissov himself has repeated his stance from the election campaign that the project would be allowed to go ahead if it was viable and that no Budget funds would be used for the construction.

Bulgaria is looking for investors willing to buy part of its 51 per cent stake, who would also have to agree that the Government would be able to block unfavourable shareholder decisions with its residual stake.

RWE, which has agreed to pay more than 1.2 billion euro, rising to as high as two billion euro, for its stake, has also been reported to be interested in selling part of its stake to other investors.

Bulgaria picked Russia's Atomstroyexport to build the twin 1000MW reactors in a tender that critics say was rigged in favour of Russian companies by choosing the VVER technology. The construction contract, worth four billion euro, was signed in January 2008, but total costs are estimated to reach 10 billion euro.