On Thursday it granted a mandate to Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin and Economy Minister Rumen Ovcharov to lead talks with the EU's executive Commission for additional financial support.

"Bulgaria has the need and capacity to use additional funds of 280 million euros, which would eventually be extended by the European Union because of the closures. This is the position the two ministers are going to defend," it said in a statement.

Neither ministry would immediately comment on the decision.

Eager to gain membership, Saxe-Coburg's 2001-2005 government shut down blocks 1 and 2 at Kozloduy in 2003 and agreed to mothball 4 and 5 by the end of next year. The last two reactors will continue operating into the next decade.

But because Kozloduy provides some 40 percent of the Balkan state's total power output, many of the poor Balkan state's 7.8 million people fear the shut-downs could drive up energy prices.

Members of the Socialist party have also argued the reactors can be safely used until 2015 and closing them will hurt Bulgaria's position as the region's leading power exporter.

Brussels, which has already pledged to extend 550 million euros to decommission the reactors, has taken a firm stance on nuclear closures in new members, forcing Slovakia and Lithuania to mothball Soviet-era units ahead of their accession last year.

But the government said it had already agreed with the Commission, in principle, that the extra funds could be extended to help pay for the shut-downs after the first chunk is exhausted at the end of 2009.

It added the funds should be earmarked in the thorny talks over the Union's future budget currently being led by Britain.

"In line with achieving a political compromise by the year end, it is necessary to plan a concrete sum in the EU budget framework proposed by the European Commission," it said.

Bulgaria and its neighbour Romania were left out of the wealthy bloc's landmark expansion into former communist Europe last year and are now racing to complete a pile of reforms to be able to join in 2007.