Russia dismissed a call from the United States to stop cooperation with Iran over the Bushehr nuclear power plant project, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

Each country has the "right to decide for itself who it will be cooperating with and in what way," Mikhail Kamynin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying, in response to comments by U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.

Burns told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday that the United States has called on countries to end all nuclear cooperation with Iran, including work on the Bushehr plant. He also said that countries should stop all arms exports to Iran.

"The adoption of binding decisions on ceasing cooperation with this or that state in any fields solely belongs to the competence of the UN Security Council," Kamynin said, "The Security Council has not made any decisions as yet on suspending interaction in nuclear power generation with Iran."

According to Kamynin, the reactor of the nuclear power plant, which is under construction in Bushehr, "cannot be used, because of its technical characteristics, with a view to producing materials for a military nuclear program."

"This nuclear power plant has nothing to do with Iran's works in the field of uranium enrichment," Kamynin added.

"The construction in Bushehr is under full control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is implemented strictly in line with our international commitments," Kamynin said, "It's well known to Americans."

Russia has suggested waiting for the IAEA report, due at the end of this month, before any action is taken against Iran's nuclear program and says it wants to continue the construction of the nuclear power plant in Bushehr.

Iran's nuclear program "depends on the contents of the report by the IAEA director general," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said on Thursday.

"The IAEA has ideas of what is happening and what is not happening in Iran," Kislyak said, "We'll be leaning on these evaluations."

Source: Xinhua