2nd UPDATE:GDF Suez Looking Carefully At Italy Nuclear Market-CEO

GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) is looking at opportunities to take part in Italy's nuclear comeback as the French company aims to be among the main energy players in the country, Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet said Wednesday.

"We are looking carefully at the opportunities in Italian nuclear" after the government decided to allow atomic power generation back into the country, he said at a press conference in Rome on the joining of GDF Suez's companies Cofathec Servizi and Elyo Italia under the energy services brand Cofely.

The government introduced legislation this year allowing nuclear generation. It was banned in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union.

The French company "aims to become one of the top energy operators" as it plans to expand its electricity and natural gas presence in Italy, Mestrallet said.

Its medium- to long-term objective is to become Italy's number two player in the gas market and the third-biggest in the electricity one, the company said.

GDF Suez will enter the Italian nuclear market only with a local player and is open to a European company joining too, including E.ON AG (EAON.XE) and Iberdrola SA (IBE.MC), said CEO Mestrallet at the conference.

It already has a joint venture with Rome-based municipal utility Acea SpA (ACE.MI).

In February, Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) and Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) agreed to a venture to build Italian nuclear sites as part of a bilateral accord between aimed at promoting the use of French nuclear technology in the peninsula. Italy's push to reintroduce nuclear power generation, however, could face resistance from local government likely to oppose hosting the sites.

Wednesday, GDF Suez' Mestrallet said the company will be looking at Areva SA's CEI.FR) advanced third-generation EPR nuclear-reactor technology for use in Italy.

GDF Suez also said it is planning to build a 100%-owned offshore liquefied natural gas receiving terminal with an annual capacity of 5 billion cubic meters on the Adriatic Sea, near Porto Recanati. No timeframe was given for when it will be built.

"We have flexibility" to chose from the company's "vast" origin of its gas supplies for the LNG terminal, said Mestrallet when asked where the fossil fuel will come from.

The CEO didn't give the amount the company plans to invest in Italy in coming years.

-By Liam Moloney, Dow Jones Newswires; 39 06 6976 6920; [e-mail]