UPDATE 1 - Serbia signs funding deal with China's Ex-Im Bank on TPP project

Earlier in the day, Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic was quoted as saying on the government's website the deal covers the financing of the construction of a 350 megawatt (MW) unit at state-owned coal miner and thermal power producer TE-KO Kostolac and the expansion of the adjacent Drmno coal mine.

The funding deal should be on the agenda of the Serbian parliament for ratification in January and as soon as it is approved, the five-year works on the construction of the new unit will start, Antic added.

The coal-fired TE-KO Kostolac complex, a unit of state power utility EPS, has an installed power generation capacity of around 1,000 MW.