Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said Wednesday that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is to become operational in the Iranian month of Shahrivar (August 23 to September 22), the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Today, the last test of the nuclear plant before its commissioning was carried out successfully," he was quoted as saying before managers and staff of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Wednesday.

"We have completed one of the most important phases dubbed hot test, which is the final test before launch of the plant," he said according to local ISNA news agency.

ISNA quoted him as saying that "37-year waiting for launch of the plant ends."

Last week, Salehi said "we are satisfied with cooperating with Russians and now 3,000 experts from the country (Russia) are working in the plant," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier in May, Head of Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom Sergei Kiriyenko said that the nuclear power plant in the Iranian southern city of Bushehr would be launched by August.

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.