Yemen's energy minister said on Sunday that international companies would build a nuclear reactor in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state, the official Saba news agency reported.
"International companies will undertake building… the nuclear reactor that Yemen aspires to own for peaceful purposes of producing electricity," Mustafa Yahia Bahran said.
He did not give details about the plan but said nuclear power would ensure the long-term energy security of Yemen, which has few oil deposits compared to its neighbours such as OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia.
Tension is mounting in the Gulf due to the suspicion among some Western powers and their regional allies that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapon, an accusation Tehran strongly denies.
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has backed Iran's right to aquire nuclear technology for peaceful ends.
During a visit to France in June, Saleh discussed possible cooperation over nuclear energy production with President Nicolas Sarkozy, Yemeni officials said.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and one of the poorest countries on the planet, has been battling a number of militant attacks in recent months.
