Work on the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the south of Iran is in its final stage. Iran had previously planned to build at least another two power units at the plant.
"Our organization has decided to build two new plants with a capability of 1,000 MW each instead of completing the second unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant," the IRNA news agency quoted Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying.
The new plants would be close to the Bushehr plant.
The official specified that constructing new nuclear power plants would be more efficient from an economic and technical viewpoint.
Iran is completing the construction of its first nuclear power plant under a 1995 contract with Russia. The $1 billion project is expected to be launched in the first half of 2009.
The project was originally started by Germany's Siemens in 1975 and envisaged the construction of two units, but work stopped following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
