Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a special envoy of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, visited Moscow for meetings with Putin and other officials including Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, who visited Teheran recently.

At the start of the meeting with Velayati, Putin said he hoped that "in the course of consultations, we and other participants in this process -- primarily our Iranian friends -- will be able to find solutions to the complicated problems that we are dealing with," the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia expects to "continue to build our relations with the Iranian people and state both in the political sphere and in the sphere of economic interaction," Putin said.

The West accuses Iran of trying to produce nuclear weapons under a civilian cover, a charge Tehran denies. Iran says it needs to enrich uranium as a peaceful, alternative energy source.

Despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding Iran suspend uranium enrichment, Iran has vowed to continue its nuclear program.

Source: Xinhua