It was hard for Bulgaria to get the support of European countries for the re-opening of third and fourth units of Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP), Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov said.

Ovcharov was recently on a visit to London, where officials said that Bulgaria should maintain its position as leading electricity producer on the Balkans.

Talks took place between Ovcharov and representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and members of parliament, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.

Though chances for receiving support were low, Bulgaria was going to do everything possible in its attempts to guarantee reactor re-opening, said Ovcharov.

The two units stopped functioning on December 31 2006 as part of Bulgaria's EU accession pre-conditions. Closure resulted in electricity shortage on the Balkans as Bulgaria had to cut down exports to meet domestic energy needs.

Bulgaria could make use of two factors to negotiate reactor opening, Ovcharov said. One is that the country became an EU member and the second is the aggravated energy situation in Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Greece.