LONDON (IRNA) -- Britain's Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks is promoting the case that there is no single solution to meeting country's future energy needs, arguing that the best solution is in the diversity of supplies.

"The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over gas prices, which threatened to disrupt supply to some European countries and which dominated the early days of the New Year, has thrown into sharp focus just how important secure energy supplies are," says Wicks.

In an article for the latest edition of Parliamentary Monitor, he argues that ultimately there is "no one silver bullet" that will target all of the UK's energy needs.

"There will inevitably be hard choices to be made in arriving at the right package, but only through maintaining diversity within the energy mix can we ensure true energy security for the UK," the Energy Minister said.

Wicks is currently leading a review of energy in order to set out the challenges of making sure the UK's supply needs are met over the coming decades as gas and oil resources from the North Sea dry up.

"Things have certainly changed since we last took stock of our energy policies in 2003. The UK's own gas supplies have declined faster than anticipated and we have moved to being a net gas importer," he said.

The minister warned that this made Britain "more exposed than before" to the international energy market, both on supplies and prices, which have risen by 50 per cent in the past three years while global demand has soared.

Projections show that by 2020 the UK will be generating around 60 percent of its electricity using gas, and some 80 per cent of this may well be imported - compared to around 10 percent at present.

It is also likely that there will be an increasing reliance on imported oil for transport and other needs.

Looking at the option, Wicks said that nuclear power stations, which require replacement in the UK, conjure up "particular demons, often borne out of the politics of their time" but he argued that it was an option to be considered.

A decision is due to be made in the current parliament about long-term plans to replace the UK's 12 existing nuclear stations, which currently provide a fifth of the country's electricity but will reach the end of their lives over the next 30 years.

As an island nation, the energy minister also argued that it would be "foolish not to exploit to the full all our natural resources" with the aim of reaching 10 percent of the UK's energy needs from renewable sources by 2010.

He said that regardless of any decision on nuclear, fossil fuels will also need to remain in the mix for decades to come and that was why the government had set aside Pnds 35 million ($65m) to invest in technologies like carbon capture and storage.