Gholamreza Aghazadeh(L), chief of Iran's nuclear energy agency, with his Russian counterpart Sergei Kiriyenko(R) in Moscow Tuesday. -Xinhua/AFP

Russia and Iran have agreed on the launch date of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is being built with Russian help, Russian news agencies reported yesterday.

Sergei Shmatko, president of Russia's Atomstroiexport company which is involved in building the plant, was quoted by the Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies as saying the two sides had signed an additional protocol that set September 2007 as Bushehr'sstart date and scheduled the delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran for March 2007.

The agreement came after talks in Moscow between Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency and Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

Russia and Iran signed the 1-billion-U.S.-dollar contract for the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant in 1995.