RUSSIA: Russia said yesterday it planned to sign a deal with Iran next month to ship nuclear fuel for Iran's power plant, defying US pressure on Moscow to sever nuclear relations with the Islamic Republic.
Tehran and Moscow have been locked in months of tough talks over nuclear shipments for the $800 million Bushehr plant Russia has helped to build despite repeated US accusations that Iran is secretly trying to acquire nuclear arms.
"I think in about two weeks all outstanding issues will be settled, that is, by the end of February," the Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Mr Alexander Rumyantsev, said. He said he hoped to sign the final document, which also requires Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia, during a visit to Tehran in late March.
"The United States has criticised us and will continue to criticise us," Mr Rumyantsev said. "They say Iran seeks nuclear weapons under the cover of our peaceful technology transfer. But we keep telling them they've got that wrong. We think we abide by all international laws."
Washington wants Moscow to withhold fuel for the reactor as long as Tehran's nuclear ambitions remain a matter of concern.
Minutes after Mr Rumyantsev's briefing, a senior US arms control official, Mr John Bolton, accused Iran of failing to comply with the commitment it made last year to suspend uranium enrichment and pursuing efforts to acquire nuclear arms.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, said Iran was developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and denied Mr Bolton's weapons charge.
"Certainly we are not following any programme to produce weapons," he told reporters in Rome.
Russia's vast arsenal of nuclear technology, accumulated during the Cold War, is also of concern to both Washington and the UN nuclear watchdog as it remains open to theft and, theoretically, black market trade.