Russia must freeze arms deals with Iran, says U S

WASHINGTON, Apr 21 (Reuters) Russia must stop any arms deals with Iran and other nations must bar the sale of dual-use technologies to Tehran to put pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear program, a senior U S official said today ''It's time for countries to use their leverage against Iran,'' said senior State Department official Nicholas Burns, adding: ''We think its very important that countries like Russia freeze any arms sales planned for Iran.'' Washington wants Moscow to cancel the planned sale to Iran of Tor tactical surface-to-air missiles. Moscow and Tehran say they are for defensive purposes.

''We hope and we trust that that deal will not go forward,'' said Burns of the Tor deal.

Burns, who met in Moscow this week with officials from Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain to plan strategy against Iran, said nations must pressure Iran individually as well as work collectively at the U N Security Council.

He said there was a ''sense of urgency'' among nations to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, especially after it announced last week it had begun the enrichment of uranium.

A meeting among political directors from the six countries is expected to take place in Paris on May 2 and the group would try then to reach an agreement on what diplomatic action to take next against Iran, Burns said.

In addition, he said the Group of Eight industrialised nations would focus on Iran at their July summit.

Russia strongly opposes the use of sanctions against Iran and has also rejected a call from the United States, which has long maintained its own trade embargo on Iran, to halt work on the Islamic Republic's Bushehr nuclear power station.

Russia's state atomic energy agency is contracted to help Iran build the 1 billion dollar reactor.

REUTERS KD KN2250