Kouchner met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday that may impose new sanctions against Tehran for its controversial uranium enrichment activity.

At the start of talks, the French foreign minister told Lavrov: "Our bilateral relations are excellent, but... I should say that we have plenty of work to do."

Kouchner stepped up international pressure against Iran on Sunday, saying in a television interview: "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war."

Russia, which is building Iran's first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr, responded with a renewed warning against attacking the Islamic republic.

In an interview published just hours ahead of Kouchner's meeting with Lavrov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov warned that a "bombing of Iran would be a bad move that would end with catastrophic consequences."

Pressure over Iran's nuclear programme has escalated in the runup to the latest UN Security Council meeting.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Monday that tensions with Iran were now "extreme," and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has himself bluntly warned that Iran risks being bombed if the nuclear crisis is not resolved.

After his Moscow talks, Kouchner will fly to Washington on Wednesday to take up the issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Tehran vehemently denies US accusations it is seeking an atomic weapon, saying its nuclear drive is aimed at generating electricity.

The United States has never ruled out using military strikes to punish Iran for defying previous UN Security Council demands that it halt its enrichment activity. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that "all options are on the table."

Iran has said it would never initiate an attack but would respond with crushing force if the United States launched a strike on its territory.

Fearing possible military action, Moscow has drawn up plans to evacuate its nuclear experts from the Bushehr construction site in the event of a conflict, deputy foreign minister Losyukov said.

He stressed that the use of force would only "worsen the situation in the Middle East" and "bring a very negative reaction from the Muslim world."

"Of course I cannot know what is being thought in the United States," Losyukov said in an interview with daily Vremya Novostei, adding that a strike on Iran "would be a big diplomatic and political error."

On Monday, the UN atomic agency chief warned against the hasty use of force in the Iranian nuclear dispute but dismissed French comments about possible war as "a lot of hype."

Iran in turn warned at a UN conference against the West picking a confrontation.

"We need always to remember that use of force could only be resorted to when ... every other option has been exhausted. I don't think we are at all there," ElBaradei told reporters at a conference of his International Atomic Energy Agency.

"There is a UN charter and there are rules for the international use of force," ElBaradei said.

Iranian Vice President Reza Aghazadeh told the general conference of the IAEA's 144 member states that Western countries "have always chosen the path of confrontation instead of the path of understanding and cordial relations toward the great nation of Iran."

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