Delay to Polish nuclear plant not critical-PGE

* PGE focused on process not 2020 target date

* Nuclear key to Poland's future power generation

* Govt should approve needed regulations mid-2011

By Michael Kahn

PRAGUE, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Meeting a 2020 date to finish building Poland's first nuclear plant is not critical, an official at its builder PGE PGEP.WA said on Thursday, raising the prospect a government target was overly optimistic.

The Polish government had delayed a target date to finish the project to 2022 but said this week that the original date of 2020 to have the first of two units producing electricity was still possible.

Monika Morawiecka, PGE's head of strategy, also told a conference she hoped the Polish government would finally adopt regulations in the middle of the year needed to move the project forward.

"We are not that focused on the date, we are focused on the process," Morawiecka said. "We want to get it right."

This week the government proposed a series of regulations needed to choose a site and to establish a regulatory framework covering the investment process.

Morawiecka applauded that but said the laws critical for ensuring the coal-dependant country's longer term power generation needs should have been done earlier.

"We are hoping the regulations are adopted by parliament by the middle of the year," she said. "They should have done this a year ago."

Cash shortages and uncertainty over energy prices are delaying or cutting back nuclear power projects across central and southeastern Europe, threatening energy supply and a push to abandon polluting coal. [ID:nLDE70I1MK]

While the government has said it was still possible to finish the 18 billion euro project by 2020, analysts say legal hurdles, funding problems and a lack of skilled workers could push Poland's plans to build the country's first nuclear project beyond 2022.

The European Union's largest ex-communist state is pursuing nuclear energy to wean its economy of highly polluting coal, which generates more than 90 percent of its electricity. It wants to build two nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of 6,000 megawatts.

Nuclear power will also help provide Poland with a more flexible generation portfolio as economic growth fuels more electricity consumption, Morawiecka said.

PGE also hopes to soon announce tenders related to site selection and other aspects of the project, she added.

"Nuclear energy is necessary in Poland and a necessary source of future baseload," she said.

"Forecasted GDP growth and significant electricity consumption upside potential lead us to believe in quite a robust power demand growth in Poland in forthcoming years."

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; editing by William Hardy)