Estonia's interest in building any new nuclear reactors in Finland goes along with its commitment to a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, Estonian Economy Minister Juhan Parts said Wednesday.

"The wider context is the development of our energy sector by, first of all, widening our energy mix, our portfolio," Parts told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an exclusive interview.

The small Baltic nation said it would be interested in building a second 350-megawatt undersea cable between Finland and Estonia, called Estlink-2.

Estonia is also interested in participating in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania with Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Estonia, which joined the European Union in 2004, has been looking for ways to secure and streamline its energy supply in the future.

As much as 95 per cent of the country's electricity is generated by burning oil shale, which produces large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and pollutes the environment, Parts said.

Energy companies in two countries have already constructed a 350MW undersea power cable, called Estlink-1, between the two EU neighbours, allowing Estonian and Finnish power companies to sell electricity to the Nordic power market.

A Finnish consortium is building a fifth nuclear power plant in Finland.

There are no definite plans for a sixth nuclear power station, although Parts said the Finnish parliament might make a decision in 2009. dpa tap wjh mga