The Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran will go into operation according to schedule in August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
"In August we will complete work... and operations will begin," he said during talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.
Putin arrived in Turkey earlier on Tuesday to attend the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)
The construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant began 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.
Russia's nuclear fuel producer TVEL has said it will deliver its next fuel shipment to Bushehr a year after the plant is launched.
ISTANBUL, June 8 (RIA Novosti)