Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko says the nuclear power station it is building in Iran will not be completed this year. The reactor near the southwestern city of Bushehr was to have gone into operation at the end of the year.
 

Minister Shmatko says there are technical problems, but observers believe Moscow wants to increase international pressure on Iran.
 

On Sunday, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and US president Barack Obama said they want to see more progress in the negotiations with Iran about its nuclear programme. It has been suggested that Iran could enrich its uranium in Russia but Tehran has yet to respond to the proposal.
 

Later today, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency is due to publish a report on its inspection of the nuclear power plant near the Iranian city of Qom, the existence of which only revealed in September this year.