Iran eyes sites for new nuclear power plants

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has allocated $135 million of next year's budget for the completion of a nuclear power plant and to select sites for new plants, state radio reported on Monday.

The Islamic state is under mounting Western pressure to suspend uranium enrichment which can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says it wants only to expand electricity output.

"Parliament has put 1.2 trillion rials ($135 million) of next year's budget into building and completing Iran's 360 MW power plant and also into selecting sites to build new plants," state radio said.

Tehran said this month it started construction of a nuclear power station using domestic technology. The reactor will generate 360 MW.

Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil producer, says it wants to build a network of nuclear power stations to produce 20,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity by 2020.

Iran's first 1,000 MW nuclear plant, being built with Russian help in the southern port of Bushehr, had been due to come on stream in September. The first fuel supplies from Russia for the plant were due to be delivered in March.

The Russian firm building the plant said on Monday the launch date would be missed and nuclear fuel would not be delivered as planned because Iran was behind with payments. Tehran denies payment delays.

The budget allocation must be approved or rejected by the Guardian Council, Iran's conservative constitutional watchdog. The national budget covers the year to March 2008.

The U.N. Security Council imposed in December limited sanctions on Iran and threatened further steps if Iran failed to meet its February 21 deadline to suspend enrichment. Iran ignored the demand.