Bangladesh has signed a cooperation deal with Russia which will led to two nuclear power plants being built in the energy-starved South Asian nation, an official said Saturday. Under the deal, signed in Moscow on Friday, Russia will help construct the two 1,000-megawatt nuclear plants in the north of the country, Bangladesh's nuclear energy commission chief Mosharraf Hossain told a foreign news agency. "It is the first step towards setting up the two nuclear power plants. A full-fledged agreement will be signed in September when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit Moscow," he said. The agreement was signed by Bangladesh's junior minister for science and technology Yeafesh Osman and Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Russian atomic energy corporation, Hossain said. Under the deal, Russia will help set up two reactors near the town of Rooppur, as well as supply nuclear fuel, take back spent fuel and train Bangladeshi officials to run and maintain the plants. Hossain said the first of the two plants is expected to generate power by 2017, and each would cost at least 1.5 billion dollars.