Israel is reviving plans for a nuclear power plant in the Negev Desert, Army Radio quoted Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) as saying on Friday.

Ben-Eliezer said he has the support of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and that the Prime Minister's Office and the Infrastructure Ministry have formed a joint team to look into the matter.

David Baker, an official in Olmert's office, declined comment.

	Advertisement

Ben-Eliezer spoke Friday to a gathering of engineers in the town of Herzliya, according to Army Radio.

"The government of Israel is to make a historic decision concerning the building of a nuclear power plant... in the Negev," Ben-Eliezer was quoted as saying.

He said the project would be presented to the government for approval in coming months.

If approved, the power plant would take about eight years to complete, the radio said.

The construction of a nuclear power plant could draw renewed attention to what is widely believed to be Israel's nuclear weapons program. Following a policy that it calls nuclear ambiguity, Israel has never acknowledged or denied having a nuclear weapons program.