RPT-Czech CEZ says talks on Romanian plants frozen

(Repeats story published late on Wednesday)

PRAGUE, April 16 (Reuters) - Czech power firm CEZ (CEZPsp.PR) said on Wednesday it has frozen expansion plans in Romania as the country considers creating a national power giant.

CEZ secured a 15 percent stake this year in a 2.2 billion euro ($3.5 billion) project to complete a nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, along with Romania's state-owned Nuclearelectrica, German RWE (RWEG.DE), Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI), Spaain's Iberdrola (IBE.MC) and multinational steel maker Arcelor Mittal (ISPA.AS).

The Romanian government has delayed approval of the plan due to plans to create a "national champion", which could possibly take over state-owned power assets in the Balkan country, Jan Veskrna, CEZ's chief of Romanian operations, said.

"The decision has been frozen and today investors are waiting for the situation to be unblocked," Veskrna told a news conference.

Romania said last month it wanted to examine whether Nuclearelectrica's initial 20 percent participation was sufficient.

For the same reason, a tender to refurbish and expand a coal power plant Galati has been postponed, where CEZ had been shortlisted along with the French utility Gaz the France GAZ.PA, Veskrna said.

He said CEZ is interested in a modernisation in Galati, even possibly in building another unit there, "and today the ball is in Romania's court. We expect the decision to be taken in a month or month and a half."

CEZ, the biggest listed company in central Europe with market capitalisation of $45 billion, also said it would be interested in buying out minority interests held by the Polish government in power plants Elcho and Skawina, where CEZ already holds controlling stakes.

(Reporting by Jan Korselt; editing by Rory Channing)