The statement late Friday came after Indian Premier Manmohan Singh signed a landmark nuclear deal with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier in the day covering the building of four new nuclear energy reactors in India.

"Once negotiations with Russia and possibly Canada in nuclear commerce talks are done with, the government will soon open up the sector for private players to participate," Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.

He was speaking in New Delhi at a government-organised technology summit.

The four new nuclear energy reactors will be built in Kudankulam in southern Tamil Nadu state, where Moscow is already building two 1,000-megawatt light water reactors.

The value of the new deal, signed in New Delhi, was not given.

The nuclear deal with Russia was the third such agreement India has signed after a decision in September by the Nuclear Suppliers Group to waive its ban on the trading of atomic technology with New Delhi.

The United States and France are the other powers to have signed agreements with New Delhi but former Cold War ally Russia remains so far the only state actively involved in building reactors in the energy-hungry country.

A host of private companies such as Westinghouse Electric Co and General Electric of the United States have been jockeying for a slice of India's lucrative civilian nuclear technology market.

The end to India's nuclear pariah statushas paved the way for atomicfuel and technology sales worth tens of billions of dollars and companies are racing to exploit the market, industry officials say.

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