Russia could provide more than 20 percent of the funding for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Armenia, worth an estimated $5 billion, Russia's nuclear chief said on Friday.

The Russian and Armenian presidents are expected to sign an intergovernmental nuclear cooperation agreement during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's state visit to Armenia, which began yesterday.

"The agreement involves technical cooperation," Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, said. "It also proposes participation in co-funding schemes."

He said a joint Russian-Armenian company had been set up to build the 1000 MW plant.

"It [company] is to raise at least 40 percent of the funding for the NPP with 60 percent expected to come from investors," Kiriyenko said.

YEREVAN, August 20 (RIA Novosti)