The deal will be inked a day after a car bomb in southwest Pakistan killed three Chinese engineers helping to build a multi-million dollar seaport and injured 11 others including two Pakistanis.

"The deal will be signed by Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali to build the 300-megawatt nuclear power plant at Chashma," a senior government official who requested anonymity told AFP Monday.

The plant will be built next to the first Chinese supplied plant, which became operational in 1999 at Chashma some 270 kilometers (167 miles) south of Islamabad, he said.

"The project would cost about 600 million dollars and is likely to be completed in six years," he said.

"This project is for electricity generation and will be subject to the safeguards and surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency," the official said.

The deal was expected to be signed in November when President Pervez Musharraf visited key ally China but was delayed because further negotiations were needed on some technical aspects, he said.

"The deal underlines the close cooperation between the two countries," he said.

Pakistan has relied heavily on China for its defence equipment since 1990 when the United States stopped supplying it with military hardware amid claims it had acquired the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

Pakistan confirmed it had nuclear weapons in May 1998 when it matched tests conducted by India.

WAR.WIRE