"Russia has cooperated with Iran and we will continue to do so, but like our European colleagues France, Germany, Britain, and the US, we are concerned by the fact that questions are being raised about Iran's nuclear programme," Putin said.

"We are categorically against an enlargement of the club of nuclear powers, and that includes Iran," Putin said after talks with the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.

"We are in negotiations with our Iranian partners. We are going to try to obtain certain guarantees from them, including in the form of agreements. This problem can and must be examined by the international community, at this stage in the framework of the IAEA (the UN atomic agency)."

Russia is contructing Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr despite international protest, but negotiations over price and logistics are holding up the launch.

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