INTERVIEW-Czechs will not veto strict EU green energy targets

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PRAGUE, March 8 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic is against setting a binding target for the European Union to make 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 but will not veto such a plan, Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said on Thursday.

Vondra, in charge of European affairs, told Reuters in an interview the Czech delegation had travelled to an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday with the belief the target should be only indicative, a view shared by France and some central European countries.

"The Czech economy, the geography of the Czech basin and the potential is such that we will probably not be able to meet the target," he said.

But he added he could not exclude a compromise. He said the overall 20 percent target could possibly be shared among individual member states, and also that France was pushing for the inclusion of nuclear energy as a low-carbon source which would suit the Czechs.

"It (our position) is not cast in stone in a way that we would veto a decision," Vondra said, saying the Czechs could be "constructive" if they remained alone in their view.

His comments appeared to soften a view by Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek who told Thursday's Financial Times that a binding target was "unreasonable, nonsensical".

Vondra said Prague backed an EU plan discussed at the summit to raise the proportion of biofuels in automotive fuels to 10 percent by 2020.

He said the Czechs also had no problem with the aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

Vondra said the Czech government was also proposing the creation of an EU forum on nuclear energy, a move he said could be derailed by anti-nuclear Austria which has long protested against a Czech atomic power station close to its borders.