MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprombank, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom [GAZP], said Tuesday it had signed an agreement with the government's nuclear power corporation on setting up a joint venture.

On July 14, Gazprombank and Atomenergomash signed an agreement on establishing a government-controlled joint venture to buy nuclear power engineering assets, in particular, Izhora Plants and a blocking interest in OMZ-Spetsstal, Gazprombank said.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, said his agency was interested in controlling only those atomic power engineering enterprises that were monopolies in production.

Kiriyenko said only Izhora Plants produced reactor and steam-generator shells and some other products, adding that the agency could not build nuclear power plants inside the country and overseas without guaranteed deliveries of this equipment.

Kiriyenko said Izhora Plants needed modernization to keep production growth at a sufficient rate. He said credits for modernization could be raised on the terms of project financing under the agreement between Gazprombank and Atomenergomash.