Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said the country's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr is only one test away from operation, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday.

"There remains just one test named Warm Water Test before we can launch the power plant," Salehi told Fars.

"We will inject fuel to the heart of the reactor after that ( final test)," Salehi was quoted as saying.

Bushehr (plant) has passed an array of tests in the last few months, and the Metal Core Test has been the latest test accomplished, said Salehi.

Last month, AEOI announced that the country's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr will come on stream by this autumn.

"We will launch the Bushehr power plant in the first half of next (Iranian) year (beginning on March 21)," Salehi told Fars.

In November, Iran's Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi told Fars that Russians intend to put Bushehr nuclear plant into operation by the end of 2009, and that there are several tests which should be conducted on the plant before it can go operational.

The country's 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant was originally constructed in the mid-1970s by Siemens of Germany, but was abandoned with the outbreak of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran and Russia, after reaching an agreement on nuclear cooperation in 1992, signed a contract in January 1995 to finish the construction of the plant, the completion of which has been repeatedly delayed.