"I have officially launched the tender process today. This is the start of a very important and positive process for our country's future,", the Anatolia news agency quoted Energy Minister Hilmi Guler as saying.

TETAS, the state-run company that will eventually market the plant's power production, said it will accept bids for the constuction and operation of a 4,000-megawatt plant, at Akkuyu, in the southern province of Mersin, until September 24, Anatolia reported.

Guler said the nuclear plant would be built by the private sector at no cost to the state.

An earlier plan for a reactor at Akkuyu was scrapped in July 2000 amid financial difficulties and protests from environmentalists in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.

Opponents raised safety concerns, arguing that the proposed site was only 25 kilometres (15 miles) from a seismic fault line.

Ankara plans to build three nuclear plants in a bid to prevent possible energy shortages and reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers.

A possible site for one of the reactors is the Black Sea city of Sinop, in the north of the country.

Amid strong opposition from environmentalists, parliament passed a bill last year setting the legal framework for the nuclear plants and authorising the energy ministry to run and finalise construction tenders and decide on the plants' capacity and location.

The law guarantees that the state will buy the plants' production for 15 years.

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