"The country is currently studying proposals submitted by France's Areva, South Korea's KEPCO, the Atomic Energy of Canada and Russia's Atomstroyexport," Jordan Atomic Energy Commission head Khaled Tukan said.

"We are in the final stage of examining the proposals."

Tukan was speaking after a meeting between KEPCO President and CEO Kim Ssang-su and Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, whose countries signed a preliminary nuclear cooperation deal last year.

"KEPCO offered to build a plant of between 1,000 to 1,400 megawatts," Tukan told the state-run Petra news agency. "Its proposal is comprehensive and can be done in eight years."

Jordan's 1.2 billion tonnes of phosphate reserves are estimated to contain 130,000 tonnes of uranium, whose enriched form provides fuel for nuclear plants.

The government wants the first such plant to be ready by 2015.

The kingdom, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs, and several other Arab countries, among them Egypt and the Gulf states, have announced plans for nuclear power programmes, faced with Shiite Iran's controversial atomic drive.

Last month, Iraq's Electricity Minister Electricity Minister Karim Wahid invited France to help his country build a nuclear plant.

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