BANGKOK?Most of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are amenable to tapping nuclear power to promote alternative sources of energy, an official said yesterday.

They expressed support for the idea even as they prepared to sign an agreement today that will allow governments to sell their oil to neighbors at ?friendship? prices.

?Nuclear energy is being seriously looked at, but we are still very much at the preliminary discussion stage, at the technical working group level,? Asean Deputy Secretary General Pushpanathan Sundram said in an interview during the Asean Business and Investment Summit.

?There are some that are opposed to it, while others are pushing for it,? he said.

Those in favor of creating or reactivating nuclear plants are Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia.

In the Philippines, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes had said earlier that the Cabinet was discussing the re-activation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant to avert a power shortage in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Land-locked Laos said every country should be allowed to take advantage of ?peaceful nuclear energy.? The ruling junta in Myanmar has already declared its intention to build at least a research reactor and has sent technicians to Russia for training.

Thailand plans to build four 1,000-megawatt nuclear plants to generate electricity by 2020.

Vietnam wants to build a nuclear power plant in Ninh Thuan by 2017.

Indonesia, the world?s largest exporter of natural gas, has also said it will build one, and Malaysia has asserted its right to develop nuclear power. Joyce Pangco Pa?ares