Putin tells Iran: Russia wants more nuclear talks

RUSSIA: Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation on Monday that Moscow favoured further talks on Iran's nuclear programme, the Kremlin said.

"In the course of a discussion of the situation surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, Vladimir Putin laid out Russia's principled position favouring the continuation of the negotiating process," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia, holder of a veto in the United Nations Security Council, says it is not convinced there is a case for tougher sanctions against Iran.

Meanwhile the United States wants guarantees that a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Iran will not advance a weapons program but does not think differences over the issue will block a U.N. sanctions resolution against Tehran, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

The Bushehr power plant in southwestern Iran is due to begin operation early next year. The Russians want the project to go ahead. A sanctions resolution against Iran is being haggled over in New York and exempts Bushehr, although Washington has previously urged work at the plant stopped.

The U.S. position has eased in recent days and State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he did not see the Bushehr deal as blocking the U.N. resolution against Iran, which follows Tehran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment activities by an Aug. 31 deadline.

Iran says its nuclear program is for power generation purposes and not to build an atomic bomb. "Our belief is that it (the Bushehr plant) shouldn't pose an obstacle to passage of the kind of resolution that we, as well as others, think needs to be passed in this regard," McCormack told reporters.

He said the United States wanted objective guarantees that safeguards laid out by the Russian government over the years - including for spent fuel to be returned to Russia so it could not be diverted for weapons use - would be met.

"(These safeguards) would allow for, first of all, the construction to take place; second of all, the fuel to be delivered, monitored and then returned, once it had already been used," he said. Moscow, Tuesday, Reuters