CAIRO, March 9 (UPI) -- Egypt has the right to pursue civilian nuclear energy technology as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the foreign minister said.
Egypt holds roughly 1 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, though energy demand is growing by 7 percent each year.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told Gareth Evans, an Austrian chairman of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, that his country has the right to the use of peaceful atomic energy, the official Egypt State Information Service reports.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a deal in 2008 that cleared the way for Russian involvement in building four nuclear power plants in the Arab world's most populous nation. The first, on the Mediterranean coast, is expected to cost $1.5 billion.
The Egyptian minister met with Evans to express support for the work done on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
His statements came ahead of a review conference for the NPT scheduled for May.
