"We plan to launch preliminary work in January to deliver fuel in March," Serguei Chmatko, head of Atomstroiexport, was quoted by the Ria Novosti agency as saying.

Chmatko said the nuclear fuel would be delivered on schedule to the southern plant of Bushehr, six months before its expected opening in September, 2007.

Moscow cinched a deal with Tehran in 1995 to build Bushehr, but the project has faced delays -- partly due to suspicions by Washington that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Under a separate agreement signed last year, Russia would provide nuclear fuel to Iran and ferry back spent fuel to prevent it from being diverted into a weapons program.

Tehran also consented to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor Bushehr and the fuel deliveries.

Russia is part of a group of six world powers mulling United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.