Russia could build up to seven new nuclear power plants in Iran, announced the head of the Russian Nuclear Energy Agency, Alexander Rumyantsev, who added that the plants' cost could total $10 billion.
"We believe that Iran needs such nuclear capabilities for peaceful use of nuclear technology," Rumyantsev said, echoing Iranian officials' claims that Tehran's nuclear programs are purely for power generation, not to build nuclear weapons as suspected by Washington.
Rumyantsev said Iranian officials were now studying the proposals.
Iranian Economic Minister Safdar Hosseini confirmed that Iran was seeking Russian help to build a second nuclear reactor at Bushehr, the location of a power plant built with Russian aid.
Hosseini headed an Iranian delegation to a meeting of a bilateral commission on economic and trade cooperation, which ended on Friday.
He said Tehran and Moscow had preliminarily agreed to build another reactor but did not say when work on the project would begin. Russia's $800 million contract to build a reactor at Bushehr is expected to be finished late next year.
Iran's nuclear program has come under international scrutiny following U.S. accusations that it is secretly building nuclear weapons. Iran and Russia have denied Western accusations that the Bushehr project could be used to produce nuclear weapons.
Moscow also said it would not send any nuclear fuel to Iran until both countries sign a deal specifying that all spent fuel -- which could be used in bombmaking -- would be returned to Russia.
But the material must first be cooled, providing Iran with what Washington fears could be up to two years in which to extract plutonium, a necessary ingredient for bombs.
Russia earlier refused to back a U.S. attempt to have the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, refer Iran to the Security Council.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said referral to the Council could prove "counter-productive."
Russia has also reiterated plans to boost natural gas and energy ties with Iran.
Russia's cooperation with Iran in the sphere of natural gas is important in terms of developing traditional markets and also in terms of a joint search for new markets, Economy Minister Viktor Khristenko told Hosseini.
A gas field called South Pars, near the boundary between Qatari and Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf, is currently being exploited by Russian gas giant Gazprom together with French and Malaysian firms.
The field is estimated to contain around 812 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 7 percent of the world's proven reserves.
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