No pressure to cut UK coal imports - Darling

LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) - Britain will not pressure its power generators to cut back the coal imports on which they depend, UK Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling told a committee of members of parliament on Thursday.

Darling had been asked whether the government was comfortable with the UK's dependence on imported Russian coal.

The UK consumed 58 million tonnes of coal in 2006, of which only 17 million was mined domestically.

The remainder was imported, mostly from Russia and South Africa.

Generators say they have no option but to rely on coal imports because UK coal production is far below their needs and extremely unlikely to revive substantially. Asked what the government could do to help revive the domestic coal industry, Darling said: "You could only do that by, in effect, subsidising it."

The government has been urged by UK coal mining companies and generators to relax environmental and planning controls which have severely restricted their ability to start new opencast mines.

One deep-shaft underground coal mine could cost up to 400 million pounds to develop and would take several years to come to full production, mining industry sources said.

Those in the industry say they doubt there will be any operating UK coal mines in 15 years time. There are currently 5,000-6,000 workers directly employed in UK coal mining -- 5 pct of the total prior to privatisation of the industry in 1994.

Six deep-shaft mines still operate, compared to 22 before privatisation.