Senior Iranian and Russian nuclear officials said Moscow has agreed to ship fuel for a controversial atomic power plant it is building in Iran by March, news agencies reported Tuesday, as Iran's nuclear chief met with a Russian security officer at the Kremlin.

The agreement signed Tuesday by Sergei Shmatko, head of the state-run company Atomstroiexport, and Mahmoud Hanatian, vice president of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, should allay Iran's complaints that Moscow is dragging its feet on supplying fuel for the Bushehr plant.

It will also renew concerns by the West, which accuses Tehran of seeking to enrich uranium in order to build nuclear weapons.

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ITAR-Tass reported that Shmatko met Hanatian to sign an additional protocol setting out a timeframe for starting up the Bushehr plant.

"The document provides for supplying Russian fuel for the atomic energy plant in March, physical startup in September 2007 and electric generation by November 2007," Hanatian was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass.

Shmatko said about 80 tons of fuel would be supplied, Interfax and ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, the chief of Russia's Security Council insisted again on seeking a diplomatic solution to international concerns over Iran's nuclear program at a meeting with Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who heads the country's nuclear organization.

"We are firmly convinced of the need to resolve the question of the Iranian nuclear program through the negotiation process," Igor Ivanov said.

"We consider it necessary that Iran should be guaranteed the right to
peacefully develop nuclear energy ... and also to remove the concerns of the international community regarding obligations under the nonproliferation regime," he told Aghazadeh.

"We will strictly fulfill our obligations," Ivanov said.

Aghazadeh responded that Iran was satisfied with the agreements signed.

"We achieved a good agreement ... on completing construction of the atomic energy plant at Bushehr, including agreement on a concrete date for directing atomic fuel to Iran," Aghazadeh said.

Iran's foreign minister, meanwhile, told The Associated Press that talks
between top Iranian and European negotiators were "on track" and could pave the way for a negotiated solution to the standoff.

Speaking in an interview at the United Nations, Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran still believed there should be no conditions on the resumption of
negotiations, implicitly rejecting demands that Tehran first suspend uranium enrichment.

Oil-rich Iran says it needs uranium enrichment to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity, and insists its program is peaceful. Enrichment can also create weapons-grade material, however, and the United States and other nations have accused Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Western nations fear that Tehran would try to divert nuclear fuel used at the Bushehr plant and seek to enrich it further for potential use in a bomb.

In an effort to ease Western concerns, Russia has agreed with Iran that Tehran will ship spent fuel back to Russia. However, Iran has resisted Russia's proposal to conduct all of Iran's uranium enrichment on Russian soil.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear
negotiator, Ali Larijani, are scheduled to hold another round of talks soon over a package of incentives put forward by six key nations - Britain, France, Germany, the United States, China and Russia - if Tehran agrees to suspend its enrichment program and return to full-scale negotiations.


Rice says she would not back imposing gas embargo on Iran
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she did not support a gasoline embargo on Iran as a way of punishing Tehran for refusing to give up its uranium enrichment program.

In an interview for publication in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Rice said there were "limitations on the oil card" against Iran, which failed to meet an August 31 United Nations deadline to give up uranium enrichment.

"I'm not sure that it would have the desired effect," Rice said in reference to a gasoline embargo, according to a transcript of her interview released by the State Department.

Such a move would serve merely to reinforce the Iranian leadership's desire to make the local population feel that America was against the Iranian people, she said.

"You want to stay away from things that have a bad effect on the Iranian people to the degree that you can," Rice said. "That's something we really do have to fight against and some believe a gasoline embargo might play into that."

Political directors from the major powers are discussing what sanctions might be imposed against Iran if it continued to refuse to abandon its enrichment program.

According to the U.S., the nuclear program is aimed at producing a bomb, but Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes.

France, China and Russia are wary about imposing sanctions, believing negotiations between the European Union's chief negotiator Javier Solana and Iran should be allowed to run their course.

Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani were set to meet in Europe, possibly on Tuesday. Asked earlier by reporters in New York whether she was hopeful about those talks, Rice said: "We'll see."

The Washington Times cited Bush administration officials as saying Iran is close to a deal that would include a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and clear the way for nuclear talks. It said the deal could be completed either Tuesday or Wednesday.

In an interview with The New York Times, Rice said the United States was willing to give Solana more time to see if he could find a formula by which the Iranians agreed to suspension, thus allowing negotiations to begin.

"I frankly don't know if it will work," she said. "I hope it will work because obviously, the best outcome here would be that the discussions with Solana allow the Iranians to suspend and then we can have comprehensive negotiations on their program and anything else that they'd like to bring up."

But if these talks did not work, Rice told the Journal she was optimistic that China and Russia would support punitive measures against Iran.

She further said any sanctions would have "collateral effects" on the willingness of private companies and private banks to do business with Iran.

"Iran is not North Korea," Rice said. "It's not isolated and it is pretty integrated into the international financial system, and that actually makes its potential isolation more damaging."