#8 - RW 261
Iran must pledge to return spent nuclear fuel: Russian minister

MOSCOW, June 12 (AFP) - Russia will deliver nuclear fuel to Iran for its controversial nuclear power plant at Bushehr only if it pledges to return the spent fuel after use, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said Thursday in Brussels, Russian media reported.

"Russia will supply the fuel to the Bushehr plant ... only if Iran signs a memorandum committing itself to returning the spent fuel to Russia," the Interfax news agency quoted him as telling Russian journalists on his arrival for a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council.

It would be in Iran's own interest "for all arrangements to be transparent and controllable in order to avoid ambiguity or divergent interpretations on the matter," Ivanov said, noting that the plant at Bushehr was under "the full control of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)."

The issue of Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran, bitterly opposed by the United States, was likely to feature in his talks with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Brussels, he said.

"The approaches of Russia and the United States to the issue are clear, having been reaffirmed at the Russia-US summit in Saint Petersburg (on June ," Ivanov said.

Washington Wednesday reiterated its long-standing demand that Russia halt its nuclear cooperation with Iran until Tehran signs a new UN protocol allowing for closer inspections of its suspected weapons program.

It opposes Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran on the grounds that the spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr could be diverted to make nuclear weapons.

Tehran has insisted that the construction of the Bushehr plant has a purely civilian objective.

Russia for its part insists that its sale of nuclear technology to Iran does not breach the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.

Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev Wednesday reaffirmed Moscow's stance that a signature of the additional IAEA protocol never featured in the original Russia-Iran agreement and that the project would be maintained.

But among a flurry of mixed signals last week, a foreign ministry spokesman stressed that Moscow still wanted to see Iran agree to stricter IAEA controls.

And the atomic energy ministry issued a statement, apparently aimed at soothing Western concerns, stating that fuel would not be delivered to Bushehr at least until 2005 when Bushehr's construction is completed after several delays.

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