MINSK, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus has requested a $9 billion loan from Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant, the Russian finance minister said Thursday.

"The loan request for the construction of a nuclear power plant is $9 billion," Alexei Kudrin said.

Alexander Lokshin, deputy head of Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom, said earlier Thursday that the countries would sign a deal to build the plant in the third quarter of this year.

Kudrin also said that Belarus had turned down a new loan tranche from Russia worth $500 million, insisting that it be denominated in dollars rather than Russian rubles.

"We offered Belarus $500 million, as a new tranche of the Russian loan, in Russian rubles, not in U.S. dollars. Belarus refused," Kudrin said, adding that talks on the terms of the loan tranche were continuing.