Russia said on Friday it was still firmly opposed to United Nations sanctions on Iran over its divisive nuclear programme, as talks on a draft sanctions resolution were due to resume at UN headquarters in New York.
"We can't support it in its current form," deputy foreign minister Sergei Kisliak told the Interfax news agency.
Germany and the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- were due on Friday to resume delicate negotiations on possible economic and trade sanctions, in the form of a resolution drafted by the three European states.
Talks were suspended a week ago, with Russia and China still deeply reluctant to agree to tough sanctions and Washington feeling the proposals from its European allies did not go far enough.
The draft calls for a series of nuclear- and ballistic missile-related trade sanctions, a freeze on assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile programmes and travel bans on scientists involved in those programmes.
But it would allow Russia to continue building a one-billion-dollar nuclear power plant in the Iranian city of Bushehr -- an exemption that diplomats say is crucial to efforts to gaining Moscow's approval.