A senior Russian legislator on Sunday criticized Iran for snubbing Moscow's proposal to host its uranium enrichment program, the Interfax news agency reported.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international affairs committee of the lower house of the Russian parliament, said Iran's move had destroyed the only chance of a compromise in the nuclear standoff.

He warned that Tehran's decision could "radicalize" a planned discussion of the Iranian nuclear issue at the UN Security Council.

Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said at his weekly news briefing that the Russian proposal, aimed to defuse the current nuclear tension, would no longer be on the agenda in Tehran due to "changes of the circumstances."

Russia proposed last December that Iran transfer its uranium enrichment to Russian soil, in a move that could secure Iran's legal nuclear rights while guaranteeing the peaceful use of the technology.

Iran suggested last month that it be allowed to enrich uranium on a small scale at home in exchange for moving large-scale enrichment to Russia.

The United States and the European Union have expressed readiness to accept the Russian compromise plan but have insisted that Iran could not be permitted to do any enrichment work on its own territory.

Uranium enrichment is a key step in the nuclear fuel cycle, but highly enriched uranium can be used for building nuclear weapons.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Moscow would react to Tehran's move after receiving a formal notice, Interfax said.

Source: Xinhua