MINSK - Russia will provide Belarus with a loan that will cover 90 percent of the costs of a nuclear power plant project in the country, officials said Thursday.

Mikhail Mikhadyuk, the deputy energy minister, said the amount of the nearly completed loan is sufficient to finance the jointly build nuclear facility.

"We just need to agree on some points at the level of experts, and the agreement will be sent for internal procedures both in Russia and in Belarus because this is the intergovernmental agreement," Mikhadyuk said.

Moscow and Minsk signed a contract Tuesday on cooperation in the construction of the power plant, which is worth $9.4 billion.

Mikhadyuk said that under the agreement, Russia is obliged to develop the plant's infrastructure, including production facilities and engineering network.

The plant is scheduled to be operational by 2017.