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. Iran's top nuclear negotiator to visit Russia this week
MOSCOW (AFP) Feb 15, 2005
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, will visit Russia on Thursday, officials said here as the two countries prepare to sign a key accord paving the way for the completion of the Islamic state's first nuclear power plant.

The secretary of Iran's security council will arrive in Moscow for a two-day visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, the Russian security council's press service was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency Tuesday.

"The purpose of Rowhani's visit is to conduct talks on Russian-Iranian relations and on problems of international security," it said.

The Russian atomic energy agency said last week it would sign a key agreement with Iran on the return of nuclear fuel later this month that would allow Moscow to complete construction of the Bushehr plant.

The agreement, which has been delayed for over a year, is to be signed during atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev's visit to Iran scheduled for February 25-27.

The fuel's return has remained the key impediment to the 800 million dollar Bushehr project.

Russia and the West both fear that Iran could reprocess the spent fuel delivered from Russia by upgrading it through centrifuges to either make a weak "dirty bomb" or an actual nuclear weapon.

The United States and Israel had jointly launched an international campaign against Russia's Bushehr project but Moscow has countered that it would make sure the plant remained harmless to protect its own security interests.

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