"Nuclear power has been a component of countries that are energy-dependent -- (South) Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, someday Vietnam. So it should always be an option out there," he told an Economist Corporate Network forum here.

The Philippines imports nearly all of its oil requirements and has been hard hit by the rising cost of crude in world markets.

Perez added however that "politically, just as in Australia, New Zealand or Singapore, nuclear power is not yet acceptable to public opinion."

The official warned that electricity demand would equal installed generating capacity by 2008 at current economic growth rates, and the private sector should be encouraged to put up new power plants now because the debt-strapped national government was not in a position to do so.

"We need some new baseload and interim plants in (the main island of) Luzon before we hit that intersection in 2008," he said.

The government built a 600-megawatt nuclear power plant near Manila in the 1970s as it sought to diversify fuel sources amid a global oil crisis but it was never commissioned.

Following cost overruns and construction delays that pushed up the price tag on the project to about two billion dollars, then President Corazon Aquino mothballed the plant in 1986. The government is still paying interest on funds borrowed to build the plant.

Last week President Gloria Arroyo broached the idea of converting the Bataan nuclear plant into one that runs on natural gas.

WAR.WIRE