The Times in London reported Saturday that British Energy's nuclear sites at Bradwell, in Essex, and Dungeness, Kent, are widely seen as the most likely candidates for closure.

EDF of France was the only company that offered to buy British Energy ahead of Friday's deadline for bids, the newspaper said.

RWE and Iberdrola, the German and Spanish utilities, have not ruled out the possibility of making a bid at a later date.

Vattenfall, of Sweden, dropped out in the final stages of bidding under pressure from the Swedish government, the report said.