WASHINGTON - Under fire for its management of key federal research facilities, the University of California has been granted a one-year extension of its contract to run the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the lab's director said Friday.

The news from lab director Charles Shank came as the U.S. Department of Energy prepares to release an official timetable for UC to compete for the first time against other universities and companies to retain management of the prestigious facility, along with two top-secret nuclear weapons labs -- Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos in New Mexico.

Los Alamos problems

After a series of high-profile security lapses at Los Alamos, the Energy Department last spring announced it would hold an open competition to run the weapons lab for the first time. UC has managed Los Alamos for the federal government ever since it opened in 1943 to develop the first atomic bomb. Among the lapses was the possible leak of nuclear weapons secrets from Los Alamos to China, which spawned the Wen Ho Lee spy case in 1999.

Late last year, Congress also ordered competition for contracts to run Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore labs, both of which UC has run exclusively for more than 50 years. Unlike Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, which employs about 3,500 people, does unclassified scientific research, such as computational engineering.

Speaking with reporters after a media luncheon to discuss scientific projects at its 18 national laboratories, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham would not confirm the extension of UC's contract to run Lawrence Berkeley. He said an announcement would be made shortly. The contract expires next week, on Jan. 31.

But Shank told reporters that UC's contract had been extended until Jan. 31, 2005, and said he was confident the university system would continue to run the lab beyond that. The UC regents have not officially decided if they will compete to keep running the labs. But on Jan. 15, the regents took a significant step toward competing for the contracts by authorizing UC officials to agree to contract extensions, respond to government requests for information and hire outside consultants.

``No person ever at UC has ever said anything other than we're going to fight for this laboratory,'' Shank said. ``I don't have the slightest question about it.''

UC news officer Chris Harrington said he was not aware of a formal contract extension for Lawrence Berkeley, although he said it would not be surprising.

Abraham said his department would formally publish a timetable this month for competition to run each of the three labs. Congress has given the Department of Energy two years to complete the bidding procedures, which are expected to be highly complicated because of the type of work done by the labs.

Competition coming

``We haven't reached a final decision in terms of the explicit timing of those competitions,'' Abraham said. ``We're trying to work it out so that these competitions would be spread out in a fashion that allowed us to do the best possible job with each.''

Shank said there is a major difference between the contract for Lawrence Berkeley, which does unclassified work, and those for Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos, which do top-secret nuclear weapons research. Because Lawrence Berkeley is located next to UC-Berkeley and so is integrated into the UC system, Shank said he is hard pressed to figure out who else would be interested in running it.

But the nuclear weapons labs are unique and highly prestigious. So far, defense contractor Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas have expressed interest in bidding for contracts to run them.

The uncertainty has not yet led to anxiety at Lawrence Livermore, but researchers are ``curious'' about what will happen, said lab director Michael Anastasio. UC's contract to run that lab expires in September 2005.

``Most employees are very strongly supportive of the relationship with the University of California,'' he said.