MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Friday that Russia planned to build the first nuclear power plant in Venezuela, and that the United States should not object because Russia’s intentions were “absolutely pure and open.”
The deal was announced during a state visit to Moscow by Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, and is in keeping with a push by Russian businesses to expand sales of reactors and nuclear fuel around the world. Just in August, Russia completed work on Iran’s first nuclear power plant.
“I don’t know who will shudder at this,” Mr. Medvedev said at a meeting with Mr. Chávez, coyly noting the possibility of American concerns about transferring nuclear technology to Mr. Chávez’s government, which has long been at odds with the United States. Venezuela, like Iran, is brimming with energy from oil and natural gas, possibly raising concerns about its motives.
“The president said there will be countries in which this will provoke different emotions, but I want to say specially that our intentions are absolutely pure and open,” Mr. Medvedev said.
Mr. Chávez was here to negotiate a variety of oil and other economic deals, in addition to the nuclear agreement. Energy officials from both countries also signed an inter-governmental agreement approving BP’s plan to sell assets in Venezuela to a Russian joint venture, a sale intended to help pay gulf spill lawsuits.
Russia first offered Venezuela nuclear power in 2008, during an intense spell of anti-Western sentiment in Moscow after the war with Georgia. The agreement on Friday fleshed out that offer.
It specified that the Russian state nuclear power company, Rosatom, would build one nuclear plant with two large pressurized water reactors to generate power, and one small research reactor to make medical isotopes and what was described as nuclear materials that could be useful as pesticides for agriculture.
Mr. Medvedev said Friday that Russia would help Venezuela build “an entire range of energy opportunities.” He added that “even such an oil- and gas-rich country as Venezuela needs new sources of energy.”
The timing on the deal was vague, and it remains unclear whether the cost and scientific expertise for a nuclear program are outside of Venezuela’s reach, even with Russian help.
In comments Friday, Sergei V. Kiriyenko, the chief executive of Rosatom, left open a wide range of possibilities for when Russia might begin work on a new nuclear power plant. “It could be in ten years; it could be sooner,” Mr. Kiriyenko said, adding that the smaller research reactor would be the priority for now.
The deepening of Russia’s nuclear cooperation with Venezuela marks only one of dozens of nuclear deals for Russia in recent years. Russia’s commercial interests lie in building nuclear power reactors and selling fuel around the world. As a legacy of the cold war, Russia has 40 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment capacity, far more than it needs for its domestic industry.
After the meetings on Friday, Mr. Chávez promoted some trade opportunities of his own.
At a news conference with the Russian president, he pulled out a chocolate bar and a bottle of jam made of bananas, and suggested that Russians might like to try those Venezuelan products.

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