U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the Czech Republic for a short visit that includes a push to help a U.S. firm win a nuclear plant construction contract.
Clinton meets Monday with Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
The Czech Republic wants to boost its nuclear capacity to produce about half of the country's electricity, up from about 30 percent today.
U.S. firm Westinghouse and a Russian company are bidding on a $10 billion contract to expand the Temelin nuclear plant, located south of Prague near the Austrian border.
A senior State Department official traveling with the secretary says Clinton will stress Westinghouse's safety record amid concerns about nuclear reactors following the disaster in Fukushima, Japan last year. The official also says choosing a U.S. firm would help the Czech Republic diversify its energy production away from Russia.