Siauliai, Lithuania  - Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said Friday that work on a much delayed new nuclear power station in his country will get underway before the end of 2009 and possibly as early as the autumn.

"By May we will have a business plan. By the fall we can probably start work on digging the ground," Adamkus told journalists after meeting with his Latvian and Estonian counterparts.

Vilnius - Lithuania's President Valdas Adamkus took part in a teleconference Thursday morning with his Ukrainian and Polish counterparts, Viktor Yushchenko and Lech Kaczynski, to discuss the ongoing gas supply dispute between Russia and Ukraine, according to official sources.

"The leaders of Ukraine and Poland requested the Lithuanian president to actively support Ukraine's position in the conflict and to explain its standpoint to EU leaders," a statement from the presidential press service said.

Vilnius - Lithuania's President Valdas Adamkus played host to his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko in Vilnius Tuesday, where the two leaders discussed bilateral economic and political relations, regional issues and Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

Yushchenko said Ukrainian companies wanted to participate in the planned construction of a new nuclear power plant at Ignalina in Lithuania.

At present the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Poland are involved in the project, which has yet to commence construction, but Yushchenko said two Ukrainian companies had already applied to Lithuania to take part.

Vilnius - Standing by in Georgia would mean following the scenario that allowed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to conquer Europe, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said on Tuesday.

"We cannot allow a second Munich," Adamkus said, referring to the Munich Conference in 1938 when France, Great Britain and Italy permitted annexation of part of Czechoslovakia.

"Then, countries appeased Hitler and it led to World War II, to a colossal tragedy and millions of lost human lives," he told Lithuanian radio.