(RIA Novosti) - Russia will continue building the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran as scheduled, the country's top nuclear official said Monday.
"Our Iranian colleagues want it to be built quicker but it will be constructed as planned," Sergei Kiriyenko said, adding that the plant would be commissioned in 2007, reports Trend.
Russia is helping to build an $800-million plant in Bushehr, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran, which had been previously scheduled to be operational by the end of 2006.
Iran has come under strong international pressure to re-impose a moratorium on its nuclear research program, which some countries say is being used as cover to develop a nuclear bomb. The Islamic Republic has denied the allegations and says it is interested only in nuclear power for civilian purposes.