UK energy industry trade union Unite cited the need to cut Britain's dependency on gas and oil when it tried prodding London Friday into speeding the development of new nuclear power installations.

"It is time to bring this farcical British Energy sales process to an end," a Unite statement said.

The labour organization said it was pushing the government to make available sites to let international consortiums build "the next generation of power stations".

The trade unions will be asking for an "urgent meeting" with John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

"It is vital we get the new nuclear power station build programme under way in order to reduce our dependency on expensive gas and oil," the union thundered.

Organized labour in Britain has traditionally asked for more oil gas development to secure jobs.