TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Hitachi and US giant General Electric will jointly develop midsize nuclear reactors to meet growing demand for power facilities in Southeast Asia, a newspaper report said Wednesday.

The Nikkei business daily said demand for smaller reactors with output of one million kilowatts or less was growing in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries.

Hitachi and GE will develop compact and advanced boiling-water reactors to try to meet that need, it said.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment on the report.

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