Iran cash lapse puts nuke plan in peril

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MOSCOW -- The opening of a Russian-built nuclear power plant in Iran could be delayed because Iran has fallen behind in payments, Russian officials said yesterday.

A top Iranian nuclear official swiftly denied that payments had been disrupted, in the latest dispute surrounding the deal at the heart of the two countries' nuclear cooperation.

Under an agreement reached last year, Russia was to ship nuclear fuel to Bushehr -- Iran's first nuclear plant -- by next month and open the facility in September, with electricity generation to start by November.

Iran agreed in a separate deal to return to Russia all spent fuel from the plant in southern Iran for reprocessing. The move was intended to assuage global concerns that the fuel could be diverted to make nuclear weapons.

Iran broke the schedule of payments this year under the $1 billion contract, said a Russian official who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

He said the Iranians blamed the delay on the need to switch payments from dollars to euros.

"The launch schedule definitely could be affected," said Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Russia's nuclear power agency.

Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, denied that Tehran had been late in making payments.

"Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant," Mr. Saeedi was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The dispute erupted during persistent diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment in order to allay international fears that it could be seeking nuclear weapons.