Stockholm - Swedish state-owned energy group Vattenfall posted higher operating profits for the second-quarter of 2008, boosted by its operations in the Nordic region, the group said Wednesday.

Operating profit before tax and interest was 6.3 billion kronor (1 billion dollars), up 11 per cent on the corresponding business period in 2007.

Second-quarter turnover increased by 9.9 per cent to 35.4 billion kronor.

Vattenfall Chief Executive Lars G Josefsson said the group's Nordic Business unit contributed to the increased operating profit.

Higher electricity prices on the local electricity market in the Nordic region contributed to the profits.

Vattenfall's Central Europe business was impacted by the Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel nuclear plants in Germany, which have been off-line since June 2007, and higher costs for carbon dioxide emissions, the group said.

Josefsson said it remained "unclear" when the German reactors were due to be back on line, due to time-consuming checks of parts in both facitilies and repairs cracks in valves at the Kruemmel plant.

Vattenfall said electricity generation was virtually unchanged in the quarter but the outages at the German nuclear plants contributed to a 11-per-cent drop in generation from nuclear power plants, while the group reported increases from hydro power and fossil-based sources. Wind power was unchanged.

The group, which has operations in the Nordic region, Germany and Poland, had 32,627 employees at the end of June, slightly up from the same period in 2007. (dpa)