Russia is building a reactor for Iran's first nuclear power plant, 250 miles southwest of Tehran, under a $1 billion contract signed in 1995. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2007, after the original date at the end of 2006 was put back. The project was originally started by Germany's Siemens in 1975, but work stopped with the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Russia is firmly committed to its obligations to complete the Bushehr NPP project within the agreed timeframe," Igor Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said at a meeting with his Iranian colleague Ali Larijani in Tehran.
The Bushehr facility has been a source of international dispute in the context of Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions, with the United States and other Western countries raising concerns that Iran may use the project to develop nuclear weapons.
