"We attentively observe what is going on around Iran and report on this to our leadership. We are not indifferent to how events will develop. But at the moment we have no information to suggest Iran is developing nuclear weapons," the service's director, Sergei Lebedev, said.

"Accordingly we see no basis for using force against Iran," he added.

Moscow has defended Iran's right to develop a civilian nuclear energy programme, a programme that Washington suspects is a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

Russia is building Iran's first nuclear power station at Bushehr and recently agreed to sell Iran 29 TOR M1 mobile surface-to-air missile defence systems.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.