ABU DHABI  - The United Arab Emirates' Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation is not ready to give the company that will run the country's first nuclear plant a licence to operate, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The operator has still to fulfil regulatory requirements, Christer Viktorsson, director-general of the nuclear body, told a news conference.

The $24.4 billion Barakah power plant is the world's largest nuclear project under construction and will be the first in the Arab world. The plant, with four reactors, has total capacity of 5,600 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; writing by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Jan Harvey) ((Saeed.Azhar@thomsonreuters.com; +971 44536787; Reuters Messaging: saeed.azhar.reuters.com@reuters.net))