The decision drew an angry reaction from neighbouring Austria but another neighbour, the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, showed greater understanding.

"We are facing a blackout here, therefore we have to act fast," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said Saturday, adding the government would shut the reactor down again "as soon as the situation is stabilised."

Economy Minister Lubomir Jahnatek said the nuclear relaunch would go ahead despite an EU-brokered deal to resume Russian gas supplies via Ukraine.

"We will not avert the critical situation by resuming gas deliveries. Today, we have more problems transmitting power than gas," Jahnatek said on Slovakian TV.

The VVER-440/230 Soviet-type nuclear reactor at the Jaslovske Bohunice plant in western Slovakia was shut down on December 31 in line with the former communist country's pledge to the EU ahead of Slovak accession in May 2004.

In Brussels, the European Commission said on Sunday there was "no legal base" for the relaunch but admitted that Slovakia had a "real problem" with the gas shortage.

"If the Slovak government relaunches the plant in the end, it will be a clear violation" of European agreements signed by Bratislava, said European Commission spokeswoman Nathalie Charbonneau.

"We cannot accept the re-opening of this unsafe reactor at Bohunice," Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said in a statement.

"In a community, agreements must be respected. The (plant's) shutdown was a key condition (to Slovakia's entry into the EU) for us and can't just be erased," he added.

"Now it's up to the European Commission to strongly urge compliance with the accession agreement."

In a rare moment of unity, opposition leaders from the two far-right parties and the environmental Greens party also blasted the decision, arguing that Bohunice was "one of the three most dangerous nuclear plants in Europe" and urging the Austrian government to take legal and diplomatic measures against Slovakia.

But Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek rejected all criticism on Sunday, pointing at shortcomings in the EU's policy on energy security.

"At the moment, I take it rather as a demonstration of their readiness to tackle an issue that the European Union cannot resolve for Slovakia -- a looming blackout," he said in Prague.

Slovakia, which depends on Russia for 98 percent of natural gas imports, sent in via Ukraine, declared a state of energy emergency on Tuesday to economise on its oil reserves, estimated to last for six days.

The restrictions have forced large Slovak companies such as French carmaker PSA and its South Korean rival Kia Motors to halt production.

Slovak officials fear the pressure in the local gas pipelines could fall to such a level that it would no longer be possible to supply gas to eastern Slovak households during the extremely severe winter.

"As soon as the situation is stabilised, we will start meeting the EU accession agreement again," Fico said Saturday.

The left-leaning prime minister has been criticising the reactor shutdown for months, saying the facility "complied with all criteria" for security, and that the shutdown was a purely political affair.

Bulgaria closed four reactors of this type in 2002 and 2006, before joining the EU. Lithuania has pledged to shut down its Ignalina plant using the Chernobyl-type reactor RBMK by ther end of 2009.

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