Iran said yesterday it was planning to build more nuclear power plants with Russian help, ignoring US concerns that byproducts from the plants could be used to manufacture atomic bombs. "We have contracts with Russia to build more nuclear reactors. No number has been specified but definitely our contract with Russia is to build more than one nuclear power plant," Asadollah Sabouri, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran in charge of nuclear power plants, told reporters yesterday. Sabouri also revealed that at least two European countries had expressed interest in the projects, although he refused to name them. "They have given us documents expressing their readiness to join the projects. We welcome them. My message to the Europeans is that we have to pass the paperwork stage and go for binding contracts as soon as possible," he said. Sabouri said Iran's second nuclear reactor will be built in Bushehr, a coastal town in southern Iran where Russia is already building Iran's first nuclear power plant. The US has accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons but Iran has denied the charges, saying its nuclear programme is geared only toward producing electricity, not atomic bombs. He said Iran was already studying other sites in Iran for other possible reactors. Most areas in Iran are prone to earthquakes, restricting choices for setting up nuclear power plants. He said Iran's first nuclear power plant - a West German-designed plant that is being repaired and redesigned by Russia - is expected to be operational by August 2006. Sabouri said the Bushehr complex had the capacity of at least four nuclear reactors. Sabouri said the project's cost would exceed $1 billion. Bushehr has seen its start date pushed back steadily in recent years from an earlier target of 2003. Russian officials had recently said it would start up in 2005. "One of the reasons that the project has faced delay is our precise attention to international standards" on safety and the environment, Sabouri said. Another factor holding up the plant is the failure to agree on a contract to return spent fuel to Russia. The agreement is designed to ease fears that Iran could reprocess the spent fuel and turn it into bomb-grade material. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Technicians, measure part of the reactor of Iran's Boushehr nuclear power plant, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, in this undated photo released by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Sunday Aug. 22 2004. (AP)