Iran is willing to have Western firms construct its planned nuclear power plants, but if they refuse the nation will carry out the construction itself, a senior official said.

"We have had the approval of another 21 thousand megawatts of nuclear power plants approved by the Parliament that will be built in the next 20 years," said the chairman of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Affairs Commission, Seyed Ala'addin Barojerdi.

"(The) international tenders for building of two of these nuclear power plants have been so far presented, and we would be willing to see the Western companies participate in these projects," he said according to the official Bernama news agency during a visit to Malaysia.

"However should they not be interested in participating in these projects, this is not the trend that could be stopped and we shall definitely (be) involved in the construction of what we do need for ourselves, in future," he added.

Warning from US

The UN Security Council has given Iran until August 31 to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities - which Tehran says is part of a civilian nuclear programme - or face the threat of sanctions.

A package of incentives backed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China - plus Germany is dependent on Tehran first agreeing to suspend enrichment.

Few details have emerged of Iran's response to the package but the United States has already warned it would lead moves to impose sanctions if the reply fell short of Security Council demands.