IEA executive director Claude Mandil, now on an Asian tour, presented an energy policy report on Japan to the Japanese government, an official of the agency said.

"Nuclear energy is expected to play a vital role in achieving energy security and climate change mitigation in Japan," the Paris-based organisation said in the report.

Japan expects a 30 percent gain in nuclear power generation by 2010, "but this target has become more difficult to reach due to safety-related incidents and significant plant outages in recent years," the IEA said.

"The first challenge is to restore public confidence," said the IEA, an energy research institute under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Earlier this year, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) was forced to close all 17 nuclear reactors to check-up following scandals over a fuel leak and the systematic cover-up of inspection data showing cracks in reactors.

The closure had prompted the world's largest private electric power generator to warn the country may face an acute electricity shortage during the summer.

Japan, however, managed to avoid suffering a massive blackout as demand for energy faltered due to unusually cool and wet weather in July and August.

Last year, TEPCO was forced to admit it had covered up the appearance of cracks including those in steel "shrouds" enveloping the reactor core at its nuclear plants for years, although they did not pose an immediate threat to the safety of nuclear plants, the agency later confirmed.

The revelations have hardened public opposition to nuclear power and resulted in the shutdowns for new inspections.

TEPCO said Tuesday its net profit for the six months to September slumped 44.3 percent from a year earlier to 796 million dollars due to the shutdown of its nuclear reactors as well as slow demand during an unseasonably cool summer.

An accident at the Tokaimura uranium processing plant in 1999 that exposed 400 local residents to radiation and left two workers dead was the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

The IEA also warned of Japan's heavy dependence on oil from the Middle East.

"Energy security issues are more critical for Japan than for most IEA countries due to its geographical location and limited domestic energy resources," the organisation said.

Japan is making "great efforts" to ensure security of supply, but "growing dependency on imported oil from the Middle East is still a concern, it said.

The IEA, created in 1974 amid the oil price shock, coordinates measures between its 26 mainly energy consuming nations of the developed world to deal with energy supply.

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