Tehran earmarks money to finish nuclear power plant
TEHRAN, Iran (The Associated Press) - May 1
 

    The Iranian government allocated funds Monday to finish the country's first nuclear power plant, and workers demonstrated in front of the former U.S. Embassy in support of the country's disputed program.

    Government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham told reporters Tehran had earmarked 1,940 billion rials (US$242.5 million, euro193.4 million) for completion of Bushehr reactor in southwest Iran.

    Top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Monday that Bushehr would go on stream in 2007. Iran had expected the plant, which was built with Russian help, to be in operation by the end of this year.

    "I think the plant will begin to operate a year later," Larijani was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. It was the first time that a top Iranian official mentioned another possible delay.

    Iran is under heavy pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fuel for the Bushehr plant or warheads for nuclear weapons. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had failed to comply with a 30-day U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend enrichment.

    The report opened the way for the council to take punitive measures against Iran at a meeting expected this month. While the United States, Britain and France are inclined toward imposing sanctions, the other veto-holding members, Russia and China, are opposed to tough penalties.

    Iran denies that its nuclear program has any military aims, saying it is confined to generating electricity.

    Some 2,000 workers demonstrated in favor of the program outside the former U.S. Embassy in downtown Tehran.

    "Nuclear energy is our obvious right!" the workers chanted. "With more work, sanctions will not affect us!"

    The demonstration, which marked Labor Day, was organized by the House of Workers, a union for workers of various industries.

    The United States broke relations with Iran in 1979 after militants stormed the U.S. Embassy and held its occupants hostage for more than a year.