The newly-designated UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, called here on Wednesday on Iran to halt uranium enrichment and accept alternative incentives proposed by six world powers, Russian news agencies reported.
"Iran must halt enrichment of uranium and accept the proposal of the six" powers, the agencies quoted Ban as telling Russian journalists following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ban, who is also currently the foreign minister of South Korea, afterwards held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who repeated Moscow's reservations about a European draft UN resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.
"We cannot support measures that are essentially aimed at isolating Iran from the outside world, at isolating the very people who are called upon to conduct negotiations on the nuclear program," Lavrov told reporters after his meeting with Ban.
He said Russia, like the United States and Europe, had no interest in Iran acquiring sensitive nuclear technologies and wanted to ensure that UN nuclear inspectors got access to Iranian facilities to verify that this was not the case.
But he added that the European draft "goes far beyond the agreed framework" established by the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany for alleviating international worry over Iran's nuclear intentions.
Lavrov's comments mirrored remarks he made on October 26, when he stated that the European draft resolution on Iran "clearly does not further the objectives that the six powers agreed on earlier".
The United States has accused Iran of seeking secretly to develop nuclear weapons under cover of its nuclear energy program, a charge Tehran has consistently denied. Washington has also led calls for tough sanctions on Iran.
Russia, which is helping Iran build its first nuclear reactor, has maintained that only IAEA inspections can determine independently what Iran's nuclear activities aims are and has insisted that negotiations are best way to ensure Tehran does not move to develop nuclear weapons.