The tender is for two reactors at Yangjiang in the south of China and two at Sanmen in the east, Rene de Preneuf, the company's chief China representative, told AFP.

The contracts could be hugely attractive to foreign contractors pining for new opportunities in an era with a cooling interest in nuclear power, but they may have to share with local companies.

"There is a significant demand for localization," de Preneuf said.

Paris-based Areva, the world's largest maker of nuclear reactors, has already built a series of nuclear generating units in China.

Its main competitor in China is a consortium headed by US-based Westinghouse which may see the participation of Japanese and South Korean enterprises.

The State Council, the country's cabinet, approved an eight billion dollar nuclear power project in Yangjiang in early September.

The governments plans to construct 32 reactors, each with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, from now until 2020 in a bid to meet the soaring demand for power from the rapidly expanding economy.

Currently, less than two percent of China's energy needs are met by nuclear power, while coal accounts for more than two thirds.

In related news, China's populous southwestern province of Sichuan is hoping to get approval by early next year to build two nuclear power plants and will seek foreign partners in the construction, the Tianfu Morning Post said.

"We have proposed four sites for the two nuclear power plants, two sites in Nanchong city, one in Luzhou and one in Yibing," Li Jianguo, director of the local branch of the National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC), was quoted as saying.

"In the first quarter of next year, we will finalize two sites from the four sites after nuclear experts complete feasibility studies."

"The investment for plants has not yet been finally decided, but it will come partly from government investment and partly from bank loans," Li added.

Li did not say when construction is expected to begin, or when the power plants are likely to be put into operation.

China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group will jointly launch public bidding at the end of this year to encourage foreign investors to participate in the construction of the two plants, it said.

Li said he expected the installed capacity of the nuclear plants to reach 2,000 megawatts in 2015, and 4,000 megawatts in 2020.

A relative newcomer in the atomic field, China put its first nuclear power plant into operation in 1991 at Daya Bay near Hong Kong and now operates nine nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 7,000 megawatts.

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