RIYADH - Saudi Arabia plans to award a construction contract for its first nuclear reactors by the end of 2018, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

"With sponsorship from the highest levels in the state, the contract will be signed by the end of 2018," Maher al Odan, the chief atomic energy officer of King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, told a news conference in the capital Riyadh.

(Reporting By Reem Shamseddine; Writing by Noah Browning; Editing by Gareth Jones) ((noah.browning@thomsonreuters.com;))