Bulgaria is considering the sale of part of its 51% share in a new nuclear power plant at Belene on the Danube, Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said Thursday.
Asked in an interview in the Standart newspaper if Bulgaria were seeking new private investors to enter the Belene project, Traikov replied: "Yes."
Bulgaria's state-owned electricity utility NEK currently holds the 51% share in the project, while German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) holds the remaining 49%.
Traikov had earlier said the government was ready to cut its share as low as 20% in order to reduce state costs for the project.
Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko meanwhile told state BNT television in an interview Thursday that Russia was "interested in principle in the proposition" to buy part of Bulgaria's stake in the plant to be built by Russian company Atomstroyexport.
Shmatko and the president of Russia's state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom Sergey Kirienko are due to discuss the issue during talks with Traikov Friday in Sofia.
Bulgaria and Atomstroyexport signed an initial EUR4 billion deal for the plant last January but failure to find funding severely delayed construction.
Atomstroyexport officials have disclosed that the cost of construction for Belene's two 1,000-megawatt reactors had risen to EUR6 billion while Traikov put the price for the plant and its adjacent infrastructure at between EUR9 billion and EUR10 billion.
If Bulgaria decided to drop the project altogether it would have to pay an EUR800 million forfeit to the Russian builder, Traykov told Standart.
"We do not need such a big new [nuclear power] plant... Bulgaria's financial resources can instead go to improving energy efficiency," Traikov added.
But Shmatko said Thursday that he was "confident" that he would "find arguments convincing the new Bulgarian government to form a positive attitude to the common energy projects."
Bulgaria had already said it was willing to join the Russia-backed South Stream pipeline to channel Russian gas to Europe under the Black Sea. The government is also currently reviewing its participation in another Russian project, the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline to link the Black Sea to the Aegean.
The two projects are also expected to be discussed during talks in Sofia Friday.