MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia must boost the share of nuclear power in its total electricity production, the country's president said Tuesday.

"The share of the electric energy output produced by nuclear power plants will be 16% in 2006," Vladimir Putin said. "However, if [this] remains unchanged, than the share of nuclear power in Russia's overall electric energy production will decrease to 13%."

"We need not only to preserve this share, but to increase it at least up to the level of some European countries, where it stands at 20% and higher," he added.