The government will reply by tomorrow's deadline to a set of questions made by the European Commission in June about the power station extension contract, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said today.

The Sunday Times had reported that the government had until tomorrow to answer queries raised by Brussels over the controversial tender awarded to Danish company BWSC.

A letter of formal notice - the first of a three-stage EU legal procedure - was sent to the government by the European Commission claiming Malta broke EU procurement rules when awarding the controversial €200 million tender to BWSC.

According to EU sources, the Commission had concerns that Malta might have infringed EU public procurement law in the tender procedure carried out by Enemalta.

"We are just trying to seek clarifications from the Maltese authorities. We hope we will be satisfied and close the case. If not, we might choose to go to another stage in our infringement procedures," the sources said.

Dr Gonzi insisted today that the facts about the power station were public and they were established after a long investigation by the Auditor-General.

"We have explained them to the Commission and we will continue to do so as required, " Dr Gonzi said.

Asked about what had prompted the Commission to write to the government, Dr Gonzi said such action was normal in cases such as this.

Asked if correspondence between the EU and Malta would be published, as the PL requested yesterday, Dr Gonzi said nothing was secret and the government might consider publication at a later stage.