Iran-Russia deal to fuel tensions with US

RUSSIA/IRAN: Russia agreed yesterday to supply fuel to an atomic power station in Iran that the United States suspects of being a front for a covert nuclear weapons programme.

The deal sent another chill through US-Russia relations, just three days after President Bush used a summit meeting with President Vladimir Putin to press him on the Kremlin's commitment to democracy, independent media and the rule of law.

Russia and Iran signed the landmark deal at the $800 million Bushehr atomic power station, which Russian engineers have helped build and which is due to go online before the end of 2006.

"This is a very important event in relations between the two countries and, in the near future, Russian experts will be sent to Bushehr to equip the power station," said Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency.

"We are planning the physical launch at the end of 2006. About half a year before that the first delivery of fuel will take place," Mr Rumyantsev said at the signing ceremony.

"Our co-operation conforms with international regulations. Iran observes all the regulations on the prohibition of the spread of nuclear weapons."

He claimed that the first batch of enriched uranium fuel intended for Bushehr was already prepared in Siberia, and awaiting delivery under a deal that has taken more than two years to finalise. Iran and Russia insist the delay was caused by technical issues, but analysts say US opposition to the project caused pause for thought in Moscow.

Russia insists that the deal signed yesterday obliges Iran to return all the nuclear fuel from Bushehr to Russia, so depriving Tehran of spent fuel which Washington believes it would like to reprocess to use in weapons.

The White House declined immediate comment on the deal, but influential Republican senator John McCain demanded swift sanctions against the Kremlin.

"This latest step of the Russians vis-a-vis the Iranians calls for sterner measures to be taken between ourselves and Russia. It has got to, at some point, begin to harm our relations," he told US television.

Senator McCain accused Mr Putin of acting "like a spoiled child" over Iran, and of limiting media freedom and curtailing democracy in Russia's regional elections, and urged the Group of Eight major nations to bar him from its next meeting in July.

"The United States and our European allies should start out by saying, 'Vladimir, you're not welcome at the next G8 conference,'" Mr McCain said, while questioning Iran's claim to only want nuclear energy to generate power for its growing population.

"They're sitting on a sea of oil, as we know. That alone makes one suspect that they want to have nuclear capabilities for other reasons," he said.

Britain, France and Germany are representing the European Union in talks aimed at persuading Iran to abandon its own uranium enrichment programme in return for trade and regional security benefits. Many influential people in Washington, however, would like to see Iran brought before the UN Security Council to face possible sanctions.

"We have to give them (the Iranians) a lot of carrots, but the Europeans have got to agree with us that if those carrots don't work, we go to the United Nations for sanctions against Iran," Mr McCain said.

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency is set to discuss Iran at a meeting in Vienna today. A November IAEA report failed to reach a conclusion on whether Tehran was trying to build a nuclear bomb.