A payment dispute that delayed construction of Iran's first nuclear reactor could be resolved next week, the Russian firm building the reactor said Friday.
"There has been no result in the negotiations so far, but they have lasted so long that we hope they will end next week," Irina Yesipova, a spokeswoman for state-owned company Atomstroiexport, told AFP.

Russia last week accused Iran of withholding payments for the Bushehr reactor, estimated to be worth more than one billion dollars (750 million euros). Tehran has rejected the charge.

Negotiators have been working intensively in Tehran and Moscow to resolve the disagreement in order to complete the reactor, which was scheduled to open in September.

International pressure has grown on Iran to suspend its nuclear programme and on Thursday six major global powers agreed to impose fresh sanctions on the Islamic republic for failing to do so.

They accuse it of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon but Iran says it is only building up a civilian nuclear energy programme.