Tehran saw a positive signal in US President Barack Obama's decision to send a special envoy to the Middle East, a top Iranian official said, while a Russian minister said it was "time we move further" on nuclear disarmament.

US National Security Advisor James Jones, an Obama appointee, cautiously welcomed the comments.

Iranian parliament speaker Ari Larijani praised Obama's decision to dispatch special envoy George Mitchell to the Middle East.

"Recently the US president said he would send people to listen and not to dictate," Larijani said, referring to the new US envoy who recently ended a week-long trip to Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

"This is a positive signal," Larijani added, speaking to an audience that included officials from the United States and Europe who had gathered for the first day of the annual Munich Security Conference.

But he also said that the peace process could not move forward if the international community continued to label Hamas a terrorist organisation, and that it was an "honour" for Tehran to support the Islamist group.

Larijani -- a former nuclear negotiator for Iran -- also signaled that Tehran would preserve a tough stance over its nuclear programme, lashing out at Washington for what he called past "double standards" on disarmament.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, meanwhile, urged the Obama administration to help renew a key nuclear disarmament pact, but warned that the US missile shield expansion into Europe would not help matters.

"It is time we move further," with renewing the strategic arms reduction treaty (START), said Ivanov, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Talks on renewing START, which led to huge reductions of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals after its signing in 1991, stalled under the administration of former US president George W. Bush.

But in January, prior to her confirmation as US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton promised to quickly renegotiate the treaty.

"The leaders in this should be the United States and Russia because we are the biggest nuclear missile powers," Ivanov said.

Jones said he was encouraged by the "messages" sent at the conference.

"We have a new administration, people are sending us messages. We are forming up and trying to get our teams together. I think it is encouraging," he told AFP when asked about Larijani's and Ivanov's speeches.

Moscow has in recent years pressed Washington to open talks on a successor to the 1991 START accord, which calls for reducing the number of US nuclear warheads from 10,000 to 8,500 and Russia's arsenal from 10,200 to 6,450.

But the Bush administration refused -- until its final days late last year -- to agree to enter new talks on a legally-binding treaty, as Moscow insisted.

Moscow has also sought to broaden the negotiations to limits on conventional forces and US plans to extend its missile shield, with a bank of interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

Referring to the deployment of missile defences, Ivanov said: "If one does it unilaterally without due respect of the interests of the strategic ability of other parties ... the situation cannot but result in increased tension."

Ivanov is due to meet US Vice President Joe Biden in Munich, in the highest-level contact between US and Russian officials since Obama's inauguration last month.

Speculation is rife that Biden, who is giving a speech here Saturday, will announce a review of the missile defence shield programme, a signal that would be welcomed by Moscow.

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