Lithuania to sign nuclear plant deal at end 2010

* Lithuania eyes shareholder deal at end of 2010

* Could widen range of investors considered

RIGA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Lithuania plans to sign a shareholders agreement to build a new nuclear power plant at the end of this year, the country's energy minister said on Wednesday.

Lithuania is running an international tender to find a strategic investor to build a new nuclear power plant at an estimated cost of 3-5 billion euros ($4.2-$7 billion).

It had to close its Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant at the end of 2009.

It has picked five potential strategic investors to continue the tender and wants to narrow this to two by the middle of the year. It also wants neighbouring Poland, Latvia and Estonia to have a stake in the project.

"All parties will be involved in a shareholders agreement, including the strategic investor who will sign it, and we expect that to happen at the end of this year, maybe in the worst case scenario early next year," Lithuanian Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas told a Baltic infrastructure and investment conference in Latvian capital Riga.

Lithuania wants a strategic partner to own more than 50 percent in the plant. The shares for the regional national partners would depend on their investment, Sekmokas told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference.

Investors other than those already considered could be interested, he added.

"We believe that there could be other parties, financial parties, willing to invest," he said, adding this would be viewed in terms of national security and security of supply.

Lithuania has said it wants to build a new nuclear plant to decrease its energy dependence on Russia, its sole supplier of natural gas, which it uses to power a fossil fuel power station, which has replaced the Ignalina plant.

The government has said it expected large European utility companies, such as E.ON (EONGn.DE), EDF (EDF.PA), Iberdrola (IBE.MC), and Vatenfall to take part in the tender, which was issued in November. [ID:nGEE5AM1K]

Ignalina supplied more than 70 percent of Lithuania's electricity needs, but the Baltic state had to close the plant for safety reasons as its reactors were of the same design as the ones at the Chernobyl plant. (Reporting by Aija Braslina; editing by Sue Thomas)