Russia and Iran signed a key deal today for Russia to supply Iran with nuclear fuel to the Bushehr nuclear plant.
The deal, which also provides for Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia, had been expected to be signed yesterday but was delayed by 24 hours as talks continued.
Tass news agency said Russia's nuclear energy chief Mr Alexander Rumyantsev and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mr Gholamreza Aghazadeh, had signed the document at the plant in Iran.
"We signed a confidential protocol in which the schedule for delivering fuel to Bushehr is fixed," Tass quoted Mr Rumyantsev as saying. "Because the protocol is confidential, I can only say that the order and schedule for delivery completely correspond with the technological process of building a station."
The deal to supply fuel for Iran's Russian built 1,000-megawatt Bushehr nuclear plant was expected to pave the way for the country's only reactor to go on line later this year and reach full capacity in 2006.
The United States, strongly opposing the deal, says it fears the Bushehr reactor could be used as a cover by Tehran to build atomic weapons.
Iran denies this, saying it needs nuclear power to generate electricity. A key part of the agreement is aimed at addressing US concerns, obliging Tehran to repatriate all spent nuclear fuel to Russia. Moscow hopes this will allay US worries that Tehran may use the spent fuel, which contains potentially weapons-grade uranium, to develop arms.