France "s Areva SA company, the world"s largest maker of nuclear reactors, and Toshiba Corp"s Westinghouse Electric company are in discussion with Chinese officials for the construction of four new nuclear reactors.

The reactors are planned for Yangjiang in Guangdong province and two are planned Haiyang in Shandong province. Westinghouse already has two reactors at Sanmen in Zhejiang province.

France has been lobbying Chinese officials for a share of the contracts to build what could be up to 26 reactors in China in the next 13 years. China is turning more towards nuclear energy in a bi to cut pollution and its heavy reliance on oil.

It is expected that Areva's bid for China 's nuclear power plant construction work will begin with the two reactors marked for Yangjiang in Guangdong province.

The US, France and Russia have been keen bidders for the nuclear power construction industry in China . Westinghouse, until October, a US company has since been bought by Japan 's Toshiba group.

In the lead up to the latest developments with China 's awarding of contracts, Westinghouse had won over rivals Areva and Russia 's AtomStroyExport to build four reactors.

Now the government has decided to give two of the contracts to Areva, following strong lobbying from France to have a stake in the country's future nuclear energy development. It is believed though, that the change will not affect Westinghouse as it will still likely get a cohtract for four reactors with a similar value, but Westinghouse may need to share the market for third-generation reactors in China with Areva if Areva wins the bid for the Yangjiang reactors.

Areva has built four nuclear reactors in China at Daya Bay and Ling Ao in Guangdong and has provided technology for reactors at Qinshan in Zhejiang .

If China is to meet its target of getting 4% of its power from nuclear energy by 2020, it will need to build two reactors a year til then. Current power derived from nuclear energy is 2.3%. China has nine reactors operating in Zhejiang and Guangdong . Two are under construction in Jiangsu in the east. These projects have a combined capacity of about 9000 megawatts.

China is the third-highest nuclear energy user in Asia - only surpassed by Japan and South Korea .