Wedoany.com Report-Dec 09,Kazakhstan on Friday said that its energy minister had held talks with French officials and companies in the running to build the Central Asian country's first nuclear power station.

The Uranium-rich nation, which suffers from chronic energy shortages, approved plans to build a nuclear power plant in a referendum earlier this year, despite lingering resentment over massive radiation exposure from Soviet-era nuclear tests.

China, Russia, South Korea and France are all in the running to construct the new facility on the shores of the massive Lake Balkhash in the country's southeast.

Kazakh Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev led a delegation to France in a three-day trip this week, the energy ministry said in a statement.

"The Kazakh delegation held negotiations with leading organisations in France's nuclear industry," -- including plant operator EDF and equipment manufacturers Framatome and Arabelle Solutions -- as well as officials from France's energy and trade ministries, Kazakhstan said.

It said the French side had "declared its readiness to support Kazakhstan in the realisation of the nuclear power plant construction project".

Kazakhstan is the world's leading uranium producer and a major exporter, but suffers from electricity shortages at home and has been historically sceptical of nuclear power.

Between 1949 and 1989, the USSR carried out around 450 nuclear tests in Kazakhstan, exposing 1.5 million people to radiation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is now pushing Kazakhstan, a close ally of Moscow's, to give Russian state nuclear operator Rosatom the contract to build the new site.

China and South Korea, boosting their footprint in the region, are also jostling for the contract.