Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the National Congress of American Indians on Tuesday that he will hold a tribal summit later this year.

Chu, the co-winer of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics, said the summit is long overdue. The last one was held in 1994.

"To address our economic and energy security challenges, Indian Country must be at the table," Chu said at NCAI's 2009 executive council winter session in Washington, D.C.

During a question and answer session, Chu said he supports energy tax production credits for tribes and wants the federal government to move faster on cleaning up atomic energy sites that affect tribes.