The Czech company Skoda was the other bidder in the government tender for the 2.5-billion-euro (3.2-billion-dollar) project.

The first of two reactors is expected to be operational within 6.5 years of the start of construction and the second a year later, company plans showed.

Atomstroyeksport has already chosen Framatome of France as its sub-contractor.

The Belene project was launched by the government in 1987 and the state invested 1.3 billion dollars in equipment and infrastructure at the site before pressure from ecologists blocked construction plans a couple of years later.

The Bulgarian government decided in April 2005 to renew plans to build the facility ahead of an expected downturn in the country's energy exports after Bulgaria closes two of its four operational reactors at the end of 2006.

The closure was agreed as part of pre-accession negotiations with the European Union, which Sofia is scheduled to join in 2007.

Bulgaria is currently a major electricity exporter in the Balkans, sending over six billion kilowatt-hours of electrical power per year. But it will most probably have to halve its energy exports after 2007, experts said.

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