The United Arab Emirates sealed a $20.4 billion deal in December for the construction of four 1,400-megawatt nuclear power plants with a consortium led by South Korea's state-owned utility Korea Electric Power Corp. Westinghouse of the United States is part of the group.

The Korean corporation is one of the world's leading nuclear power specialists and operates 20 reactors worldwide.

Kuwait held talks with Areva of France, a major nuclear energy company that had hoped to win the emirates deal with the personal backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visited Abu Dhabi in May 2009 to open a military base.

Kuwait's deal "is an intergovernmental agreement for cooperation between the French and Kuwait governments to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Bernard Bigot, chairman of France's Atomic Energy Commission, told Kuwait's Parliament on Jan. 16.

The emirates' first reactor is scheduled to start up in 2017. South Korea will also provide Jordan with its first nuclear plant by 2014.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, plans to build four nuclear stations.

In June, Cairo signed an agreement with Russia, which is building a nuclear reactor for Iran, that cleared the way for Moscow's involvement in building Egypt's nuclear power industry. The first plant is slated to be constructed on the Mediterranean coast at a cost of $1.5 billion.

Saudi Arabia's plans are not as advanced as the emirates', but the United States and France appear to be the front-runners to win the contract to launch the kingdom's nuclear program.

The emirates wants to be the first Gulf state to develop a civil nuclear program, largely to meet rising demand for electricity and for desalination plants, which provide the Gulf nations' water.

The emirates' oil reserves, primarily controlled by Abu Dhabi, are steadily declining and it does not produce enough natural gas to meet growing demand.

Abu Dhabi heads and largely funds the emirates' nuclear program.

Unlike its partner emirate Dubai, Abu Dhabi has emerged from the global economic meltdown in good shape and current estimates are that its economic growth will continue, with energy consumption more than doubling in the next decade, from 15.5 gigawatts to 40GW.

According to the World Nuclear Association, demand for energy in the six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain -- is increasing by 10 percent each year.

Al Ahram, Egypt's leading newspaper, hailed the emirates for blazing "a new trail in the region, offering an example for all countries in the use of peaceful nuclear energy."

"For years, the matter of nuclear energy has been taboo," it commented in its weekly edition. "It was approached often with hesitation and sometimes deceit. …

"By launching a peaceful nuclear program and keeping it transparent, the U.A.E. aims to serve as a model for others."

The emirates federation also has a $41 billion deal with the United States under which it will buy nuclear fuel for its nuclear plants from the Americans. In return it pledges to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and not reprocess the spent fuel.

The U.S. Congress, mindful of the emirates' hefty trade with Iran across the Gulf and suspicions that includes material for Iran's contentious nuclear program, has sought to impose strict conditions on the federation's nuclear efforts.

Most recently, Democrats in the Congress demanded that President Barack Obama delay the deal after a member of Abu Dhabi's royal family was acquitted of torturing another man despite plainly doing so on a 45-minute videotape made public in May 2009.

But the administration has given no indication it plans to take any action that might jeopardize its relationship with the emirates, a close ally and the fourth-ranked producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Saudi Arabia, which has its own agreement with the United States on nuclear energy, is also facing power shortages as demand has surged because of rapid economic growth.

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