Italy today moved a step closer to reinstating nuclear energy, abandoned more than 20 years ago, after the government gave a final approval to a decree setting criteria to select sites for new atomic plants.

The decree will pave the way for starting work on new plants in 2013 and production of the first nuclear power in 2020, Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola, a leading supporter of Italy's nuclear renaissance, said in a statement. Italy is the only member of the Group of Eight industrialised nations without nuclear power after it was banned by a public vote in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. Silvio Berlusconi's government aims to rebuild the sector and produce 25 percent of power from nuclear plants.

"The decree is characterised by transparency and absolute respect to security of people and environment," Scajola said.

The decree sets general criteria to pick sites for nuclear plants and fuel and waste deposits, procedures for construction and operation of plants and a system of financial compensation for areas that agree to host nuclear stations.

Once Italy sets up a nuclear safety agency and outlines its strategy, sector operators will be able to propose the sites for new plants and present their projects for authorisation, the ministry said.

Italy's biggest utility Enel and France's nuclear giant EDF plan to build four nuclear plants in Italy.

Public opinion in Italy has been generally hostile to nuclear energy. Local authorities have a crucial say in the approval of industrial projects and several Italian regions have already said they did not want to host nuclear plants.

The government has turned to Italy's Constitutional Court to overrule laws which bar construction of nuclear power stations in the southern regions of Puglia, Campania and Basilicata, Scajola said last week.

In an effort to sweeten the nuclear pill, the decree would ensure a wide participation of regional and local authorities as well as the population in permitting procedures and monitoring of construction and work of the plants, the ministry said.

Companies building the plants will make the compensation payments to areas which agree to host them, the ministry said.

Under the decree, the companies and Italy's nuclear decommissioning company Sogin will be in charge of nuclear plants' decommissioning once their life expires and a special national deposit will be created for nuclear waste.