Iran sees talks ending Russian atomic plant row http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-03-13T143049Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-290761-1.xml
Tue Mar 13, 2007
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday that negotiations could resolve a dispute with Russia about building the Islamic Republic's first nuclear power plant, after Moscow announced an indefinite delay in the project.
The Russian firm building the 1,000 MW nuclear plant at Bushehr in southwest Iran said on Monday the September launch date would be missed and nuclear fuel would not be delivered as planned this month because Iran was behind with payments.
Tehran denies there have been payment delays.
"We are not pessimistic and we believe with negotiations this issue can be solved. It is better that this project carries on within the framework of the contract," Iranian government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham told a weekly news conferece.
"Our mutual cooperation with Russia is a basic and pragmatic decision," he said.
Iran is embroiled in a row over its nuclear programme, which the West says is a covert plan to produce nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies. The world's fourth largest oil exporter insists it wants only to generate electricity.
Russia has defied Western concerns by supplying arms to Iran, helping build the Bushehr nuclear power plant and watering down sanctions against Tehran at the United Nations, but is now signalling its patience with Iran's leadership is wearing thin.
Observers in Moscow said the Bushehr project was, in effect, being mothballed because of political sensitivities.
The five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- plus Germany are discussing imposing new sanctions on Iran because it failed to meet a Feb. 21 deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, the process that can make material for warheads or atomic fuel.
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