A new round of negotiation between Russian and Iranian top nuclear officials on Saturday showed no progress on a Russian compromise proposal to defuse crisis over Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Iran's official IRNA news agency described as "intensive" the talks between Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Organization, and Gholamreza Aqazadeh, Iran's Vice- President and head of Atomic Energy Organization.

Bilateral cooperation concerning the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Russian offer to solve the nuclear dispute surfaced prominently in the lengthy negotiations between the two officials, IRNA said, without giving details.

Russia proposed last December to establish a joint venture in Russia to enrich uranium for Iran in order to remove Western fear that Iran would divert the nuclear technology to making atom bomb, but Iran insisted on its right to enriching uranium into fuel on its own soil for generating electricity.

Aghazadeh told state television after the talks with Kiriyenko that the negotiations touched on the Russian proposal but the emphasis was placed on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's first nuclear plant being constructed with Russian help and due to finish later this year.

"We also discussed Russia's interest in participating in Iran's peaceful nuclear program," Aghazadeh added.

According to the schedule, Aghazadeh will accompany Kiriyenko to visit the Bushehr plant on Sunday, and the two officials will hold a joint press conference there.

Aghazadeh said that the time of the inauguration of the Bushehr plant would be decided during Kiriyenko's visit on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Kiriyenko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying that Moscow's offer to enrich uranium for Iran "certainly remains on the table," which were viewed as an indication that the talks made no progress.

Kiriyenko arrived in Tehran on Friday after the talks in Moscow on Monday and Tuesday, which were termed as constructive by head of the Iranian delegation, Seyed Ali Hosseini-Tash.

Russia expects that Iran's acceptance of its proposal would ease the rising tension over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program before a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors in Vienna on March 6.

The UN nuclear watchdog voted to report Iran's case to the UN Security Council on Feb. 4 after Iran resumed nuclear fuel research on Jan. 10, but asked the council to withhold actions until the IAEA regular meeting in March.

Deputy Director General of the IAEA Olli Heinonen is scheduled to arrive in Tehran late Saturday, and his visit is believed to contribute to the IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's report on Iran.

The tension over Iran's nuclear issue worsened after Tehran put an end to the snap inspection of its nuclear sites by the IAEA and resumed small-scale uranium enrichment in the wake of the IAEA decision.

Source: Xinhua