The European Union has welcomed Slovakia's decision to close two controversial nuclear reactors in 2006 and 2008.

A commission spokesman said the move would be taken into account when the Union decides whether to start membership talks with the country.

The EU has promised financial compensation for several million dollars-worth of upgrades to the reactors.

But Austria has called the closure timetable unacceptable.

The plant containing the reactors -- which Western experts say are unsafe -- lies sixty kilometers from the Austrian border. A BBC correspondent says the Slovakian decision may increase pressure on Lithuania and Bulgaria to close similar ageing reactors.