MOSCOW, Aug. 2 — Russia, under pressure from the Bush administration, indicated today for the first time that it was prepared to reconsider plans to build nuclear reactors in Iran that American officials fear could be used in a covert program to make nuclear weapons.
After a third day of meetings here with American officials, the minister of Russia's nuclear energy agency, Aleksandr Y. Rumyantsev, said in a statement that Russia would take into account "political factors" before deepening its help to Iran, according to a statement issued by his ministry.
The statement, muted as it was, came at the end of sometimes-pointed talks here between Russian energy and security officials and an American delegation led by the secretary of energy, Spencer Abraham.
Last week, on the eve of the delegation's visit, the Russian government announced that it planned to build as many as five more nuclear reactors in Iran after completing an $800-million, 1,000-megawatt reactor at the Persian Gulf city of Bushehr as early as next year. The plans were included in a document outlining a 10-year program of economic and scientific cooperation between Russia and Iran.
In today's statement, Mr. Rumyantsev repeated Russia's insistence that its cooperation with Iran was limited to civilian development of nuclear energy and not the development of nuclear weapons, but he appeared to take note of the objections being raised by the Bush administration.
Mr. Rumyantsev's statement suggested that Russia was prepared to abandon any further cooperation with Iran on nuclear programs, even though Russian officials said all week that they had the right to continue the project at Bushehr, as well as other peaceful nuclear-energy programs.
"As to the prospects of cooperation with Iran in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the draft of the long-term program for the development of trade, economic, industrial and technological cooperation between Russia and Iran through 2012 only mentions the existing technical possibilities," the statement said. "Their implementation depends on many factors, including political factors." On Thursday Mr. Abraham accused Iran of "aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons" and bluntly called on Russia to cease all assistance, including completion of the plant at Bushehr.
"No one should be under any impression that there is anything but the utmost concern on this question on our part, and those concerns have been frankly and directly conveyed during our meetings here," Mr. Abraham said.
Today's statement appeared to be an effort to play down the divisions at a time when the United States and Russia hope to cooperate more closely in a variety of areas, including the protection of the world's energy supply at a time of uncertainty over the prospects of an American war against Iraq.
The issue remains sensitive, though. Mr. Rumyantsev canceled a scheduled news conference today, and Mr. Abraham, who met with him for a third day, made no public remarks. The statement said that discussions would continue when Mr. Rumyantsev and Mr. Abraham meet in September at the conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which oversees nuclear power programs.
The statement emphasized that Russia and the United States considered the development of nuclear energy to be important for national security, while underscoring the need to prevent nuclear expertise from being used to build nuclear weapons.
"Such a commonality of approaches is determined by the concern about issues relating to energy security, nonproliferation and environmental stability," it said.
Iran maintains that the Bushehr plant is a civilian project and has allowed international inspectors from the atomic energy agency to visit the site.
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