French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said after talks in Moscow that the United States was being regularly informed of European efforts to convince Iran not to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies it is seeking to build such arms.

Lavrov said that Moscow interpreted US President George W. Bush's recent speeches as meaning that Washington would also pursue diplomacy and that fears that the United States were ready to strike the Islamic state -- as reported by The New Yorker magazine -- were unfounded.

"The Americans are regularly informed on the state of negotiations" which are being led "in complete transparency with 22 European partners and Russia," Barnier said.

Lavrov for his part said Bush has "confirmed the firmest US preference to a peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem."

Washington has charged that Tehran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, a charge which Iran denies saying its nuclear program is purely peaceful.

But the European Union's "big three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- are holding crucial talks with Iran aimed at finding a long-term solution to allay international fears about the nuclear program.

"This is a delicate cooperation and we are keeping our eyes open. But there is no alternative" to negotiations, Barnier said.

He was talking at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, and the French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie as well as Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

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