Centrica, the parent group of British Gas, was last night trying to position itself at the heart of the nuclear debate by making clear to other power companies that it wants to be involved in a new generation of atomic power plants in the UK.

The company, with a massive customer base but relatively few power plants, is likely to take a small equity stake in a nuclear consortium or help underwrite the cost by a commitment to buy electricity from these facilities, it was revealed.

Centrica declined to comment but an industry source said: "Centrica has already held talks with British Energy about the construction of new plants and is expecting approaches from EDF and Areva of France on the same subject".

The British group is still toying with the possibility of being an equity stake holder but is more likely to support another group of companies building plants by taking a certain volume of electricity through a long term supply contract as it already does with British Energy, he explained.

The future of new nuclear remains in the balance as the government's energy white paper has been delayed by a challenge from Greenpeace. The environmental campaigners argued that Downing Street had failed to properly consult the nation. The energy white paper is expected to be published on May 24 at the earliest but could be pushed back. Despite this, ministers are convinced they will be able to seek business proposals for new stations before the end of this year.

British Energy believes it is in a good position to be involved because it owns many of the ideal sites for building new reactors. It has already held talks with Centrica, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power.

Eon and EDF are also keen to build under the right conditions. EDF already involved in nuclear plants in France along with atomic plant operator Areva, declined to comment last night on who it was holding talks with but sources close to the company said it had been "speaking to a lot of people."