Leading presidential contender Michelle Bachelet said on Saturday she has the endorsement of Chile's biggest environmental groups for her energy and mining policies including creating a minister of the environment.

Bachelet, seen as a fiscal conservative with liberal social policies, pledged to make 15 percent of the country's energy come from renewable resources by 2010.

"During my government I'm not going to develop nuclear energy," she said. President Ricardo Lagos, Bachelet's socialist party mate, has proposed exploring nuclear alternatives.

Bachelet said that by 2009 Chile would have a regasification plant to import liquid natural gas and that she would push for a natural gas ring that would connect Chile, Argentina and other countries to the rich natural gas fields in Peru and Bolivia.