Tehran was willing to share its controversial nuclear technology with neighboring countries and could help Turkey build an atomic power plant, Adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Mohammad Javad Larijani said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
"Iran developed a very sophisticated nuclear science and technological capability, which we are quite ready to share with ... neighboring countries and friendly countries in the region," Larijani said.
"Turkey is for years trying to have a nuclear power plant but no country in the West is willing to build that for them," Larijani told reporters. "This is true for our Arab (neighbors) in the region."
"We are ready to cooperate with them in this regard, while within the NPT." He was referring to the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of atomic weapons technology.
"We can produce (nuclear power plants) together, share the electricity," he told Reuters in an interview. "This is also a source of income for us. It is not (just) Westinghouse that can build a nuclear facility, or Canada. Islamic Republic of Iran also is ready to build (a) nuclear facility."
"Also we can produce fuel," he said. "We think about this commercial value in the future."
Larijani said Iran did not have a "concrete proposal" for nuclear cooperation with Turkey or another state at the moment though he said Tehran had made its willingness to help known.
There was no immediate response to a request for a reaction to Larijani's remarks from the Turkish U.N. mission.
Larijani said Iran was also willing to cooperate in the nuclear field with countries outside the region, like Brazil.
"In some areas Brazil is ahead of us, in some areas we are ahead of Brazil," he said. "So we can cooperate as well."
Both Turkey and Brazil voted against a fourth round of U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in June 2010.
The United States, European Union and their allies suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and, along with the U.N. Security Council, have imposed sanctions to try to stop it from enriching uranium. But Tehran says its nuclear program is to generate electric power and refuses to halt it.
Turkey has ambitious plans to build up a civil nuclear production capability and has been in talks with Russia and Japan about it. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is is among the firms interested in a Turkish deal.
Last year Turkey awarded Russia's Atomstroyexport a contract for the country's first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu on the country's Mediterranean coast.