TEHRAN - Iran began the construction of a nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr on Saturday, official IRNA news agency reported.

The new power plant will be part of the plan to develop Iran's first commercial nuclear reactor Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the report said.

According to local Press TV, at a ceremony attended by senior Iranian and Russian officials, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said: "We are opening a new page in the trend of our peaceful industrial nuclear activities."

He also said the project will be carried out within the framework of the Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency and in line with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

On Sept 1, Salehi said Iran and Russia had agreed to build two nuclear power plants in Bushehr.

The construction, with an estimated cost of $10 billion, would be completed in 10 years, he said.

By building these two power plants, Iran would save 22 million barrels of oil per year, Salehi added.

But he did not detail the specifications of the two projects.

According to IRNA, the construction of the other power plant will be launched in 2018.

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant was first constructed in 1975 by German companies. However, the work was halted when the United States imposed an embargo on high-tech supplies to Iran after its 1979 revolution, in which the US-backed monarch was overthrown. Russia signed a contract with Iran in 1998 to complete the construction.