Indonesia said on Wednesday that it will press on with plans to build a nuclear plant close to a fault line, despite the atomic emergency in earthquake and tsunami-ravaged Japan.

"If we pick to build it on Bangka Island, it will be based on several considerations which are in line with international safety criteria," National Atomic Energy Agency (Batan) chief Hudi Hastowo said.

Bangka lies east of Sumatra island, where a 9.1-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2004 killing 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

"The site has a relatively stable record of seismic and volcanic activity," he said, adding that the agency will "certainly" adopt more sophisticated technology than Japan.

"It's too premature to discuss how the Japan crisis will directly affect our project," he said. "But in 2022 when we build the plant, we'll use a better technology system," he added.

The disaster that has befallen Japan's Fukushima plant has prompted some experts to cast a worried eye at nuclear plants in seismic zones.

Twenty percent of the 440 commercial reactors in operation around the globe are located in areas "of significant seismic activity," according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), an industry group. Some of the 62 additional plants under construction are also in quake-prone zones, along with many of the nearly 500 units on order or proposed, especially in fast-developing countries, the group said.

Green groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth urged Southeast Asian leaders to stop plans to build nuclear plants to meet energy needs and direct the funds towards green technology.

"We call on the heads of state to immediately cancel their plans to develop their nuclear projects," they said in an open letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Philippine President Benigno Aquino and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.