"The opening of the Boushehr nuclear power station, that is to say the transfer of nuclear fuel to the station, will take place in 2005 ... and the station will be linked up to the country's energy grid in 2006," the IRNA news agency quoted Alexander Rumyantsev as saying.

"With all the delays in building the first section of the Boushehr station, it would be better to wait until it is up and running before talking about building a second part," he added.

The project has been repeatedly delayed because of negotiations over an agreement under which Tehran would pledge to return spent fuel from the plan to Russia.

Rumyantsev on Sunday denied that he would sign the deal on an imminent visit to Iran.

Last week, Iran's vice president and head of its atomic energy organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency that the accord would be signed during "the upcoming visit" by Rumyantsev.

Officials in Moscow quoted by the news agency said the visit will take place at the end of January, but Rumyatsev said Sunday that no date had been fixed for his next trip to Iran.

Russia has dragged its feet on the deal, insisting that Iran first sign a protocol allowing UN inspectors to stage surprise inspections of suspect nuclear sites.

Iran signed that protocol on Thursday, bowing to international pressure to allow suprise UN inspections of all its nuclear installations.

In exchange, Iran wants Western countries to help furnish it with the technology necessary for developing civilian atomic energy.

Rumyantsev also said that Russia would make no moves to help build another nuclear power station in Iran until Tehran issued an international call for tender for such a project.

And he said Iran's decision to master the cycle of nuclear energy was "neither necessary or economically justifiable, since it would have to have at least ten nuclear stations, and Iran doesn't even have one station yet."

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