TEHRAN, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi said that Russia would complete Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant this year, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

"Delays in completion of Iran's first nuclear plant in southern city Bushehr are not only Russia's fault," but Russia was committed and determined to complete the project, Sajjadi was quoted as saying.

He noted that there were some other countries which had not fulfilled their commitments to provide equipment on time required for the plant.

"Russia has a greater chance compared to other countries" to participate in Iran's other projects of nuclear power plants, he maintained.

Earlier in Dec., Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant would start operation by 2010.

Boroujerdi, who is also head of Iran's Parliament (Majlis) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that "Bushehr nuclear power plant has made good progress, hoping that it will become operational by March 2010."

The main problem with the plant, that of the fuel supply, had been solved and the doubts whether the plant would start operation had already been removed, he said, adding that "Russians are trying to accelerate the process and hundreds of Iranian engineers who have been trained in Russia are replacing Russian experts."

The Bushehr plant is Iran's first nuclear power plant. It originally started in the mid-1970s by Siemens of Germany but abandoned with the outbreak of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran and Russia, after reaching the agreement on nuclear cooperation in 1992, signed a contract in January 1995 to finish the construction of the plant.

However, completion of the plant has been repeatedly delayed. The construction of the plant is at its last stages and Russians have promised to complete it in 2009, according to the Iranian media.
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