Germany says nuclear extension plans to go ahead

BERLIN Feb 8 (Reuters) - Germany will go ahead with its plans to extend the lives of some nuclear plants, a government spokesman said, playing down the Environment Minister's comments the government should consider rethinking the strategy.

Ulrich Wilhelm, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, said on Monday the government was sticking to the extension plan as laid out in the coalition deal.

Wilhelm said there was no disagreement on using nuclear energy as a bridge technology until there was a reliable renewable energy supply to replace it but that the details were being discussed.

Norbert Roettgen, a member of Merkel's conservatives, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview published over the weekend that public support for the plan was too weak and his party should carefully consider whether it wanted to be remembered only for nuclear energy [ID:nLDE61601O].

"The Environment Minister has made clear the contribution renewable energy should play. The government will pursue this ambitious goal," he said, adding government officials would work on an overarching energy strategy in the coming months.

Merkel's government wants to change a law passed by an earlier centre-left government that requires the country's nuclear plants to be shut down by the mid-2020s.

Nuclear power operators E.ON (EONGn.DE) and RWE (RWEG.DE), Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg (EBKG.DE) and Sweden's Vattenfall [VATN.UL] want to get extensions as soon as possible as it could mean billions of euros in additional profits. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; editing by Karen Foster)