Moscow, March 27 (RIA Novosti) Tehran has resumed financing the Bushehr nuclear power plant being constructed by Russia in southern Iran, a nuclear official said.

Russian contractor Atomstroyexport received the first payment for the construction of Bushehr since financing was suspended in February, Sergei Novikov, an aide to the head of the Russian Nuclear Power Agency, said.

"It is positive that our partners have overcome the difficulties but it is a long way from compensating us for the construction needs that have emerged over the period," Novikov said.

Atomstroyexport said it received 60 percent of the funding in the fourth quarter of last year, $5.1 million in January and no financing in February.

Russian nuclear officials said the plant could not go into service in September as planned and that nuclear fuel would not be supplied to the plant in March. Iranian officials said they were funding the project on time.

Novikov said the funds paid to Atomstroyexport would normally have covered half of the monthly expenses at the plant, which is being built under a 1995 contract, but added that Russian experts continued working at the site.

The $1-billion Bushehr project, implemented under the supervision of the IAEA, was originally scheduled for commissioning at the end of 2006 but has been postponed five times so far.