Tony Blair launched a review of Britain's energy policy today, saying the Government would explore the possibility of building a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Speaking from a back room at the CBI conference in Islington, North London, after his formal speech was delayed for 48 minutes by anti-nuclear protesters, the Prime Minister joked "This is going to be a surreal occasion" before announcing the review.

"The issue back on the agenda with a vengeance is energy policy," Mr Blair told standing delegates who crowded in to hear him speak from a hastily made podium. "Round the world you can sense feverish re-thinking. Energy prices have risen. Energy supply is under threat. Climate change is producing a sense of urgency."

"I can today announce that we have established a review of the UK’s progress against the medium and long-term Energy White Paper goals. The Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, will be in the lead, with the aim of publishing a policy statement on energy in the early summer of 2006."

"It will include specifically the issue of whether we facilitate the development of a new generation of nuclear power stations," he said.

Mr Blair, who was accompanied by the bemused prime ministers of Estonia and the Czech Republic, said that wind, wave and solar power would never match the capacity of the coal-fired and nuclear plants that are set to close in the coming years.

"By around 2020 the UK is likely to have seen closure of coal and nuclear plants that together generate over 30 per cent of today’s electricity supply. Some of this will be replaced by renewables, but not all of it can," he said.

The Government remains officially neutral on the outcome of the review, which will re-examine Britain's energy policy just two years after a 2003 white paper described nuclear power stations as "an unattractive option" and recommended investment in renewable sources of power.

But environment campaigners say that Mr Blair is convinced that building new nuclear power stations is the only way to secure future energy needs.

This morning's protest saw two Greenpeace activists climb into the rafters of the main conference hall at the Business Design Centre in Islington and unfurl a banner declaring: "Nuclear: Wrong Answer" fifteen minutes before the Prime Minister was due to speak.

The two men, named later as Huw Williams and Nyls Verhauelt, dropped yellow confetti on the room below and were later arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said today's protest, which was criticised by Mr Blair and Sir Digby Jones, the Secretary General of the CBI, was justified because he believed the Prime Minister has already decided what the outcome of the energy review will be.

"Just three years ago Blair conducted the biggest energy review in 60 years - which concluded renewable energy and energy efficiency, not nuclear, is the way forward," said Mr Tindale.

"Today’s new review is simply a smokescreen for pushing his new-found enthusiasm for nuclear power. It’s like Iraq all over again - Blair makes his mind up, then tries to spin his decision to the British people."

Mr Wicks, who will lead the review, said that the Government's aim was to supply "clean, reliable, affordable energy supplies for the long term" and that the review will examine new coal and gas technologies, transport issues and energy efficiency, alongside nuclear power.

"There is no single solution. It is certainly not a case of nuclear versus renewables," Mr Wicks told journalists.

Mr Blair's speech, taken as the broadest hint yet that he favours nuclear power as the way to secure the country's energy needs, provoked a range of reactions today. Friends of the Earth said the Government had been taken in by persuasive lobbying from the nuclear industry.

Tony Juniper, the FoE director, said: "The UK can meet its targets for tackling climate change and maintain fuel security by using clean, safe alternatives that are already available. But these have so far been underplayed by the Prime Minister, who has fallen for the nuclear industry’s slick PR campaign."

Meanwhile, the Conservatives, who support nuclear power because it provides Britain with homegrown energy, criticised the Government's apparent delay in launching the review.

"A leak from the DTI in May showed that civil servants were calling on the Government to start an energy review, but it has taken them seven months and an energy crisis to get things rolling," said David Willetts, the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary.

Charles Kennedy, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that the Government had yet to show how it could afford to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, and warned that it would have to levy a "nuclear tax".

For full live coverage of the CBI Conference, click here

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