Energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) tasked senior officials to work out details of the ASEAN Nuclear Energy Safety Sub-Sector Network, they said at the end of a one-day meeting in Singapore.

The officials are to report progress by the next ASEAN energy ministers' meeting in Thailand next year, a joint communique said.

As the ministers began their meeting earlier Thursday, the environmental group Greenpeace urged ASEAN to drop plans to generate civilian nuclear power for the region, citing safety concerns and weapons proliferation risks.

At least three ASEAN member states, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, have announced plans to build nuclear power plants in a bid to cut dependence on crude oil and natural gas, but raising concerns over safeguards.

"One of the solutions (to energy needs) that they (ASEAN ministers) are proposing... is to build nuclear power plants," said Nur Hidayati, a climate and energy campaigner for Greepeace Southeast Asia.

"We say this is a very dangerous pathway if it is followed," she told a news briefing. "We say this is not a solution because it creates more problems and it will last a long time."

Singapore Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar, who opened the meeting, said there was an increasing need for affordable and reliable energy supplies to fuel the region's robust economic growth.

"As one of the world's fastest growing region, ASEAN will require increasing energy supplies to fuel our rapid pace of economic expansion," he said.

While exploring ways to secure energy supplies, ASEAN should also look at alternative sources such as new-generation biofuels and civilian nuclear power, said Jayakumar who is also the minister for law.

As more countries plan to harness nuclear power for their energy needs, Jayakumar noted that ASEAN is now beginning to discuss nuclear safety issues among member states.

But Greepeace activists said the region does not have the expertise and the trained personnel to operate nuclear power plants, and warned of the dangers that plutonium -- which is a nuclear waste -- could get into the wrong hands.

Plutonium is a key ingredient for the making of a nuclear bomb.

During their annual meeting in Manila last month, ASEAN foreign ministers discussed how they can strengthen rules to ensure that civilian atomic energy is not used for non-peaceful ends.

Greepeace said ASEAN states also lacked the experience in storing and disposing radioactive wastes.

With the region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, it was unclear if ASEAN members have the capability to deal with a leaking nuclear power plant, it said.

The energy ministers also signed a memorandum of understanding on an ASEAN Power Grid aimed at coordinating and easing the implementation of power interconnection projects.

The ministers also noted progress in the finalising of a new ASEAN Petroleum Security Agreement, which is seen as an important mechanism to deal with petroleum shortages. They hoped to sign the pact next year that would replace 1986 agreement.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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