Iran"s first nuclear power plant, Bushehr...

"It will be launched this year," Lavrov said.

The construction of Iran"s first nuclear power plant was started in the country"s south in 1975 by German companies. However, the firms stopped work after a U.S. embargo was imposed on high-technology supplies to Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the subsequent U.S. Embassy siege in Tehran.

Russia signed a contract with Iran in February 1998 to complete the plant.

The launch date has been postponed many times over financial and technical reasons. Iran has claimed that Russia was reluctant to finish the facility due to UN sanctions, and concerns voiced by world powers that the plant is part of a covert nuclear weapons program.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said late last year that the construction of the Bushehr facility was proceeding according to plan and the plant would go online in 2010 as scheduled.

MOSCOW, March 9 (RIA Novosti)