Iran said on Wednesday that its much-delayed nuclear power plant, where testing began last month, would start generating electricity by September 2009.

The 1,000-megawatt Russian-built plant in the southern port city of Bushehr will first generate around 500 megawatts, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told parliament, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Since the fuel for the power plant is in Iran, the project will be operational in the summer (the quarter ending September) and generate 500 megawatts of electricity that would be transmitted to the national grid."

The plant will achieve full capacity in the second half of the Iranian year to March 2010, he said.

Iran and Russian officials began testing the plant on February 25, as Tehran pressed on with its controversial nuclear programme despite Western fears it may be secretly trying to build an atomic bomb.

Moscow supplied the fuel for the plant in 2008 but it is currently sealed by the UN watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been investigating Iran's nuclear drive for six years.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Moscow's federal nuclear agency, announced when tests began that construction of the plant was complete but he did not set any date for its commissioning.

The testing of the Bushehr plant raised fresh concerns in the international community over Iran's nuclear development, although Tehran insists that its atomic programme is purely peaceful.

On Tuesday, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany said in a rare joint statement that they were ready for direct talks with Iran to resolve the long-running nuclear standoff.

Despite being the world's number four crude oil producer and holding the second largest gas reserves, Iran insists it needs nuclear power to sustain a growing population, saying its fossil fuel will run out in the coming decades.

Nuclear breakthrough possible if US changes attitude: Iran
A breakthrough is possible in the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West, if the United States changes its attitude towards Tehran, the Iranian envoy to the UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday.

If Washington changed its "mentality ... and they understand that we're on an equal footing, and they come in a civilised manner to the negotiating table, then there will be a breakthrough," Iranian ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board here.

"But they not only have to recognise our inalienable right (to nuclear technology) for peaceful uses, but they should remove any obstacles for the implementation of these rights, including the fuel cycle and enrichment," Soltanieh said.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to develop the atomic bomb under guise of a nuclear energy programme, a charge Tehran vehemently denies.

For the West, the main sticking point is Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used not only to make nuclear fuel, but also the fissile material for a bomb, despite three rounds of UN sanctions.

Tehran insists that, as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has a right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Despite a six-year investigation, the IAEA is still not in a position to definitively say that Iran's nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.

Earlier this week, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei complained of a deadlock, with Iran stonewalling key questions on the possible military dimension of past nuclear work and defying UN orders to stop enrichment.

But Soltanieh said the deadlock was of the West's making, not Tehran's.

If the situation really is "stalemated", "it is not a technical but a political stalemate," he said.

"It's not a technical stalemate because the agency is continuously implementing safeguards in Iran without any impediments. If the DG (director general) is right, it is a political stalemate, which has been created by a few Western countries."

On Monday, ElBaradei expressed hope that a possible shift in policy in Washington could help break the deadlock.

And on Tuesday, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany had said in a rare joint statement that they were committed to direct diplomacy with Iran.

Responding to that statement on Wednesday, Soltanieh said that could be "an indication they've come to the conclusion that they have to correct the mistake of sending the issue to (UN Security Council) in New York."

Tehran has long argued that the Iranian nuclear dossier is a matter solely for the IAEA, not the UN Security Council.

Not wanting to be too optimistic, "this may might be a way to correct their mistake and stop the engagement of the UN Security Council," he said.