According to Russia’s nuclear power plant construction company Atomstroyexport, a group of Russian experts will visit the construction site of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant to ensure progress in talks aimed at breaking a stalemate over project financing.

“A group of Russian experts left April 8 for Iran and will visit today the Bushehr NPP to inspect the construction work at the site,” a company spokesman was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

“Russian and Iranian partners will review the implementation of the project, including a schedule for further equipment supplies,” he said.

The $1 billion project was under the threat of being frozen after Atomstroyexport, the general contractor, said that Tehran had not made any payments for the NPP construction since mid-January, and that by the fourth quarter of 2006 the project had only received 60 percent of required funding.

The company warned that the launch of the NPP and nuclear fuel deliveries could be delayed as a result.

On March 26, Atomstroyexport announced that Tehran had resumed financing of the Bushehr nuclear power plant and it had received the first payment from Iran, but reiterated that Russia expected future payments on time to avoid further delays in the construction.

The Bushehr project implemented under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog was originally scheduled for commissioning at the end of 2006, but the date has been postponed five times.

The project was originally started by Germany’s Siemens in 1975, but work stopped following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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