The Baltic states and Poland are next week likely to ink a deal to build a new nuclear power plant to replace Lithuania's ageing Ignalina facility, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said Tuesday.
"There are no particular issues of dispute, and we could sign a declaration" on the sidelines of a summit in Vilnius next week, Kirkilas told reporters following a cabinet session.
He said he planned to discuss the plan during a meeting with his counterparts from Estonia and Latvia later Tuesday in the Latvian capital Riga.
"It seems that Poland is also ready to sign the document," he added.
The three Baltic countries and Poland had planned to sign a declaration on construction of the new nuclear power plant in July. But the deal fell through after Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski called of a trip to Vilnius because of a government crisis at home.
The leaders of the four countries are to gather in Vilnius next week for a wider international conference on energy security, to be held on October 10-11.
Lithuania pledged to shut down its Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant by 2010 during its talks on joining the European Union.
The Baltic states and Poland joined the EU in 2004,
Vilnius and its neighbours plan to build a 800-1,600 megawatt-capacity plant by 2015 at a cost of 2.4-4.0 billion euros (3.4-5.7 billion dollars).
The Baltic countries, which regained their independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991, still rely almost completely on Russian energy sources and see the new plant as a way to reduce Moscow's clout.
