Iran said on Sunday that it has reached a preliminary agreement with Russia on a Russian proposal of a joint uranium-enrichment venture and the two countries would continue talks in the coming days.

"We have reached a preliminary agreement for the establishment of a joint enrichment venture," Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted by official media as saying.

Aqazadeh, who is also Iran's vice-president, made the comments at a joint press conference with his visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Kiriyenko in the southern province of Bushehr, where Iran's first nuclear power plant is being constructed with Russian aid.

Aghazadeh told the reporters that the two sides had "made progress" on the joint venture offer during Kiriyenko's three-day visit which started Friday.

"We will continue the discussion in the coming days in Moscow, and we think the negotiations would yield satisfying results for the meeting (of the International Atomic Energy Agency) on March 6, " he added.

Russia proposed last December that the two countries establish a joint venture in Russia to enrich uranium for Iran, holding that the offer would secure Iran' legal nuclear rights while guaranteeing the peaceful use of the technology.

In response, Iran defined the Russian suggestion as not negative but incomplete.

Russia expects that Iran's acceptance of its compromise plan would cool down the rising tension over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program before the key IAEA meeting.

For his part, Kiriyenko said that Moscow is still waiting for Iran's decision on the Russian proposal.

"We are awaiting a decision from Iran guaranteeing the right to nuclear energy and the non-deviation of nuclear material," he told reporters.

He confirmed that the negotiations would continue in Moscow sometime in the coming days.

The upcoming talks in Moscow would be the third round of the recent bilateral talks over Moscow's compromise plan.

Seyed Ali Hosseini-Tash, Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, led a delegation to Moscow and held two- day negotiations with Russian officials from Monday.

Hosseini-Tash defined the talks as constructive, saying two parts reached rudimentary agreement on some principles of the Russian proposal during the first round of talks.

The IAEA board of governors will convene on March 6 with the Iranian nuclear issue top on the agenda.

The agency in early February adopted a resolution to report Iran's case to the UN Security Council but asked the powerful council to withhold actions until the meeting in March, referring to economic sanctions warmly advocated by the United States.

Source: Xinhua