But he added: "Fixing preconditions means that you have already determined the result of negotiations in advance and it is for this reason that such policies have produced no result up to now."

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since Washington severed ties in 1980 in the wake of the seizure of its embassy in Tehran by Islamist students.

Any official contacts between the two sides would mark a breakthrough in the frozen relations, which have been marked by mutual recriminations and enmity over almost three decades.

However past overtures for talks have stumbled over Iran's right to enrich uranium in its nuclear programme, a process the West fears Iran could use to produce nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council has imposed limited sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and world powers were to meet in London on Monday in a bid to thrash out a consensus on further measures.

The United States and Israel accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charges, insisting that its atomic programme is peaceful in nature.

While US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has insisted she is ready for talks with her Iranian counterpart, Washington has always maintained Tehran must halt its uranium enrichment activities first.

If Iran froze enrichment "then we can come to the table and we can talk about how to move forward," Rice said in a US weekend television interview.

"We're all prepared to have full-scale negotiations anytime, at any place," she added.

"We do not accord credibility to declarations made through the media," responded Larijani, head of Iran's supreme national security council, who spoke to IRNA from Pretoria where he has held talks with South African leaders.

However Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected the prospect of suspending enrichment, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday comparing the Iranian nuclear programme to a train without brakes or reverse gear.

"The great powers have to put an end to our worries and respect the right of Iran," said Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Jalili, according to the Fars news agency.

"We have done what was necessary to put an end to their worries. It is their job now to end our worries and win our confidence," he added.

The remarks on official talks coincide with an upsurge in speculation that the United States is planning air strikes on Iran to thwart its nuclear programme.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow was "worried" about the possibility of US military action against Iran.

"We are worried that the forecasts and suppositions of a possible attack on Iran have become more frequent," Lavrov said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin shown on state television.

Lavrov referred in particular to comments made last week by US Vice President Dick Cheney, who said that "all options are still on the table" for Washington.

earlier related report
Russias foggy nuclear future
by Pyotr Goncharov - UPI Outside View Commentator
Moscow (UPI) Feb 26 - The head of the international nuclear watchdog is to deliver a report to the U.N. Security Council on Iran's nuclear program this week, which could decide the fate of the controversial Bushehr nuclear project.

Since Tehran and Moscow signed a contract on completing construction of its first power unit on Jan. 8, 1995, the nuclear power plant in southern Iran has been a source of international concern that Iran could use the project as part of a covert weapons program.

The project was originally started by Germany's Siemens in 1975, and also involved France and the United States. But work on it stopped with the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Many people in Russia have heard of Bushehr. Some view it as a sign of Iran's confidence in Russia, while others consider it a soap opera with an inevitable happy ending to follow, although not without headaches for Moscow. Russian state nuclear equipment export monopoly Atomstroyexport is providing technical assistance to the construction, but the project itself has long ceased to be a simple bilateral or purely business matter.

When the Security Council was drafting Resolution 1737, Russia was accused of resisting the efforts of other major U.N. powers to impose punitive measures against Iran, allegedly to protect its interests in Bushehr. The resolution was adopted in December 2006 and provides for sanctions against Iran, banning activities involving uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing, heavy water-based projects, and the production of nuclear weapons delivery systems.

It now appears that it would be better for Russia, both in terms of pure profit and considering Iran's questionable reliability, to sell on the contract. The U.S., the European Union and Iran have been trying to use the Bushehr project to their advantage, and it would be na�ve to think that Russia is not doing the same.

French daily Le Monde earlier wrote that Tehran was using the project to blackmail Moscow into acting in its interests, and that Moscow allegedly complied for fear of losing a lucrative contract.

How did Moscow respond? When the issue of nuclear waste became a problem (there is an agreement obliging Iran to return to Russia spent fuel which could potentially be used for a nuclear weapons program), the Kremlin said the power plant was being built under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. That assuaged international fears, for some time.

But the situation has changed since then. During a visit to Tehran in December 2006, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency, bluntly warned Iran that the completion of the project directly depended on financing.

As of mid-February 2007, Iran had not made payments under the $1 billion project in Bushehr for over a month. Difficulties emerged after Iran abolished payments in U.S. dollars and made a transition to payments in euros.

The project has entered the final stage. According to Atomstroyexport, the deliveries of nuclear fuel for the power plant should start in March 2007, and the plant is to be put into operation in September and start producing electricity in November.

The planned delivery of nuclear fuel has again drawn the world's attention to Bushehr. Moscow has not changed its stance on the Iranian nuclear problem, saying that the IAEA is the top authority on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

IAEA head Mohammed El-Baradei is to report to the Security Council in the next few days on Iran's compliance with the U.N. resolution. If Tehran does not suspend uranium enrichment by that time, the U.N. may approve harsher sanctions, including severance of economic relations.

It stands to reason that Moscow has nothing to gain from hurrying to deliver nuclear fuel to Bushehr, as there is no guarantee that this soap opera will have a happy ending.

(Pyotr Goncharov is a political commentator with RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

Email This Article

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com