Russian ministry denies secret nuclear deals with Iran

The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] believes that Russia, China and Pakistan were probably supplying Iran with equipment for enriching uranium, according to an urgent report issued by the AP news agency.

The AP news agency refers to an anonymous diplomatic source. Nikolay Shingarev, the head of the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry's information policy department said at present, cooperation is confined exclusively to the construction of the No1 generating set at the Bushehr nuclear power station.

"In principle, contracts on the delivery of electronic equipment, including laser equipment, were concluded between Iranian and Russian enterprises at the end of the 1990s for research purposes," he added.

"Naturally, it was not intended for any industrial usage. There was such a contract, but this work was suspended and not all equipment was eventually delivered to Iran. Russia and Iran did not implement any other cooperation projects, either for research or technological purposes, that would have anything to do with uranium enrichment," Shingarev said.

Radio Russia/ BBC Monitoring Middle East