Pressure on Iran as hopes fade of deal with Russia

MOSCOW - Iran faced growing international pressure over its nuclear plans on yesterday as hopes faded of striking a deal with Russia that would ease Western suspicions that it is trying to build an atomic bomb.

Russian and Iranian negotiators discussed for two days a Moscow proposal to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as one of a dwindling number of diplomatic options for defusing the nuclear row before Western governments seek UN sanctions.

Both sides said more talks would take place in Tehran.

Interfax news agency reported the Iranian delegation was about to leave Moscow but had no word on any progress. A top Iranian official in Tehran earlier ruled out a return to a moratorium on uranium enrichment, which Russia had demanded.

The head of Iran's delegation called the talks "positive and constructive" and said more discussions were planned.

"We discussed a joint formula and we will continue talks," Ali Hosseinitash, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security, told Iranian television by telephone from Moscow.

Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom is due to travel to Iran on Thursday. Asked at a news briefing if the talks would continue, he said: "Definitely."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier: "I would be cautious about using the terms 'collapse' or 'failure' until the talks are over," Itar-Tass news agency reported.

US officials suggest Iran is discussing the Russian plan merely to gain time, a view shared by many Russian commentators.

"Their aim is to haggle, to put off as long as possible the hour when sanctions from the international community become unavoidable," wrote the daily Izvestia.

Tehran has said it will consider a joint venture with Russia and possibly others to enrich uranium for power stations, but insists on a right to pursue enrichment at home as well. It says it wants nuclear fuel only to produce electricity, not bombs.

If the dispute is not resolved, Iran may face action by the UN Security Council, which can impose diplomatic or economic sanctions, after the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency reports on Tehran's nuclear programme on March 6.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier made clear the patience of Berlin, which has so far taken a more cautious line than Washington, was not endless.

"We do not rule out the possibility of economic sanctions completely," he told a news conference in Tokyo. "We have no option but to pray that the Iranian government will make a final decision with sincerity."

Russia and China, which could veto any move by the United States and its European allies to impose sanctions on Tehran, share concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but do not want to sacrifice their commercial interests in the Islamic Republic.

"China hopes Iran will restore suspension of all activities relating to uranium enrichment and create the conditions for appropriately resolving the Iran nuclear issue through peaceful negotiations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who met EU officials in Brussels on Monday, said Tehran would press ahead with its nuclear work with or without the Russian proposal.

"We should move forward and returning to the suspension of our nuclear activities is not on our agenda," he told reporters on his return to Tehran.

Russia and China say sanctions would only make things worse, but Lavrov also said earlier that Moscow could find it hard to resist calls for such measures in the Security Council unless Tehran resumed an enrichment moratorium it abandoned in January.

- REUTERS