Iran sticks by nuclear 'right' on eve of Russia talks

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has said it was standing by its "right" to enrich uranium on its own soil, just a day before talks with Russia aimed at finding a compromise on the ultra-sensitive nuclear work.

The negotiations on Moscow's offer to carry out ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment work on Russian soil are seen as a last chance for Tehran to avoid being hauled before the UN Security Council for punitive action.

Having already been reported to the UN Security Council, Iran is also under pressure to provide greater access to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and return to a full freeze of enrichment work -- which can be extended to weapons making.

But the tone in Tehran was defiant.

"The negotiations are not taking place with conditions and the Islamic republic's officials have said they will not back down in defending their rights," national security official Ali Hosseini-Tash, who will be leading the Iranian team to Moscow, told state television Sunday.

Russia is hoping the idea will satisfy Western objections to Iran holding technology that can be extended to make weapons, while at the same time providing the Islamic republic with fuel for its nuclear energy drive.

But Iran says it only wants to make electricity and that its right to enrich uranium for fuel is therefore enshrined under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who is expected to meet separately on Monday with European officials in Brussels, also said other countries must "accept fuel making in Iran in accordance with the NPT."

"The Russian plan needs more discussions and clarifications, notably on who can participate in the plan, its calendar and on the places where enrichment can take place," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

There have been growing doubts Iran would accept the Russian compromise following its decision to restart its own small-scale uranium enrichment while at the same time mobilising public opinion in a way that leaves little room for compromise.

Opinion has also been hardening in the West, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week branding Iran's government "a strategic challenge to the United States, to the world, and a destabilising influence in the Middle East."

France's Foreign Minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, has also accused Iran of harbouring "a clandestine, military" project.

If Iran rejects the Russian plan, tension will rise rapidly ahead of the March 6 meeting of the UN Security Council, possibly opening the way to a debate on sanctions -- an escalation that analysts say could have unpredictable, dangerous consequences.

Russia is doubly interested in resolving the row, analysts say. Moscow has no desire to see Iran become nuclear armed and is also Iran's closest nuclear partner, with Russian engineers in the latter stages of building the country's first atomic power station at Bushehr.

Three days after the Iranian delegation visits Moscow, Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom, is due to travel to Iran, partly to inspect the Bushehr construction site.