Iran's ambassador Gholamreza Shafei told reporters that an agreement on the return to Russia of spent nuclear fuel may be reached during a visit to Iran by Russia's atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev later this month.

"Rumyantsev will visit Iran at the end of February to discuss this question," Shafei said.

"Tehran is ready to sign a commercial agreement on this issue," he said in reference to the return of the nuclear fuel.

Such statements have been issued by both sides in the past, only for the project to be delayed still further under pressure from the United States. The Russian-built plant at Bushehr -- whose construction had been launched by Germany in the 1970s - was initially due to go on line last year.

But now Russian officials also say that the signing of the spent fuel agreement is imminent, and the comments appeared to be the most concrete to date concerning Bushehr's actual launch.

The fuel's return has remained the key impediment to the 800 million dollar project.

Russia and the West both fear that Iran could reprocess the spent fuel delivered from Russia by upgrading it through centrifuges to either make a weak "dirty bomb" or an actual nuclear weapon.

Tehran has in the past used various arguments to avoid signing the agreement. It has said the material was too volatile and dangerous to transport back to Russia and also that Moscow was charging too much for the fuel itself.

The United States and Israel had jointly launched an international campaign against Russia's Bushehr project but Moscow has countered that it would make sure the plant remained harmless to protect its own security interests.

The Bushehr deal appears closer to fruition just weeks after the US administration said it could not rule out the use of force if Tehran fails to drop its nuclear ambitions.

But Shafei said that Iran needed several more nuclear power plants -- hinting that the contracts will go to Russia - and said that Moscow and Tehran were also negotiating new arms deals.

"Nobody doubts the need of building new nuclear power plants" in Iran, he said.

Washington officials said that Iran will once again come up for discussion during US President George W. Bush's February 24 summit in Bratislava with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The West has argued that Iran has no need for nuclear energy because of its oil reserves.

Tehran counters that its oil is far removed from densely populated regions and that international sanctions have prevented the country developing a proper infrastructure for delivering oil to the needed areas.

Ambassador Shafei said Iran was prepared to admit foreign inspectors to any of its nuclear sites on demand.

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