Iran Suspends Uranium Enrichment Program - For Now

"From today, we are temporarily suspending our process of uranium enrichment," said Hassan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in Moscow.

"We are giving to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a letter officially agreeing to the additional protocol," Rowhani was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Signing the additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would subject Tehran to a vigorous inspections regime, including surprise visits to suspected facilities.

And the suspension of uranium enrichment, a process to create material that can be used to make atomic bombs, is one of a number of demands set by the IAEA for Iran to allay fears about its nuclear activities.

Rowhani added that the IAEA has informed officials in Iran that they "had no further questions that Iran had not already answered."

For his part, Putin replied that Moscow believed Iran had the right to enrich uranium, but was happy that Tehran had "itself resolved to limit itself."

"With regard to the enrichment of uranium, Iran has a right to carry out these kinds of activities but we note with pleasure that Iran has itself resolved to limit itself," Putin said.

The Russian leader said Moscow no longer sees any obstacles to continuing cooperation with the Islamic state, where it is building its first nuclear reactor at the southwestern town of Bushehr.

He added that, in light of the announcement, Moscow no longer saw any obstacle to continuing nuclear co-operation with Tehran.

"Because of this, I see no obstacles to cooperating in the nuclear sphere with Tehran," Interfax quoted Putin as saying.

The Iranian official confirmed the agreement, saying the Russian government promises to finish in the near future the construction of the Bushehr power plant.

Rowani said that the two sides would also launch talks on the possibility of Russia helping construct a second nuclear reactor at Bushehr in southern Iran.

Russia has delayed Bushehr's launch repeatedly in a nod to concerns from Israel and the United States over the project.

The plant is now not expected to go onstream until spring 2005 at the earliest.

Moscow and Tehran appeared Monday to make little progress on the signature of a separate protocol that would guarantee that Iran returns all of the spent fuel from the Bushehr plant -- material the West fears could be reprocessed into making nuclear weapons.

The Russian atomic energy ministry said the protocol was being discussed during Rowhani's visit but refused to specify when an agreement might be signed.

Tehran first promised to suspend the uranium enrichment process last month during talks with EU members Britain, France and Germany.

But it emerged shortly afterwards that the process was continuing as officials were "studying how to halt the nuclear fuel cycle," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

A western diplomat quoted by Reuters says the U.S. has little chance of realizing its goal of having Iran declared by the IAEA board to be in non-compliance with the NPT.

Such a declaration would require reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, which has the right to impose sanctions, the same step taken against neighboring Iraq years before the U.S.-British invasion.

Observers had earlier expressed fears that Washington might use the nuclear allegations to make the case for launching a military aggression against Iran and deviate attention from the Iraq quagmire by turning heat on its neighbor.