Russia links moratorium with Iran enrichment project

MOSCOW, Feb 26 (Reuters) Russia sees setting up a joint venture to enrich uranium for Iran as linked with Tehran resuming an enrichment moratorium, Interfax news agency quoted a Russian official source as saying today.

''The Russian side intends to discuss the issue of setting up a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium only as a package with all other problems concerning the Iranian nuclear dossier,'' the source in the Russian delegation in Iran said. ''These problems include, among other things, the resumption of enrichment moratorium by Iran.'' The source spoke after Iran's nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said talks with the Russian side had ended in a ''basic'' agreement on the joint venture seen by many as an instrument of defusing international concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

REUTERS OM BD1921