Bulgaria's National Electric Company (NEC) said on December 20 that it had asked strategic investors to file improved offers for the acquisition of a 49 per cent share in the Belene nuclear power plant.

Offers were to be handed in by January 9 2008, Reuters said.

Lyubomir Velkov, executive director of NEC, said that all five short-listed candidates had been asked to sweeten their bids.

Bidders included Italian Enel, German E.ON and RWE, Czhech CEZ and Belgium's Electrabel.

Velkov said NEC was expecting improved bids regarding management of the plant. "Improvements are expected in the way the investors are seeing their role in the future management of the plant. The initial offers of some of them sound like they are going to have a majority stake," Reuters quoted Velkov as saying.

Belene's nuclear power plant was to be built by Russia's Atomstroyexport, and expected to start production in 2014. The plant would aim to compensate for the closure of the two reactors at Kozloduy in 2006 and restore Bulgaria's position as a leading power exporter in the region, Reuters said.