Sanctions on Iran 'unlikely

Moscow - Further UN sanctions on Iran are unlikely in the near future, a top aide to Russian President Dmitry MedvedevDmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday, amid continued Western concern over Tehran's nuclear programme.

"Sanctions on Iran are unlikely in the near future," Medvedev's top foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko told Russian journalists, according to the Interfax news agency.

The United States has in recent weeks been seeking a concrete commitment from Moscow to tough sanctions against Tehran should the current diplomacy aimed at ending the nuclear stand-off fail.

Prikhodko did not give further details on Russia's position, saying he could only repeat a statement made by Medvedev in the United States last month that had initially gladdened Washington.

"Sanctions rarely result in the necessary result but in some cases the use of sanctions is inevitable," Prikhodko said. "This formula remains in force," he added.

Transparency

He said that Russia was concerned by the "lack of transparency" surrounding the Iranian nuclear programme and the possible intensification of the nuclear crisis.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had on Monday said world powers should show maximum patience in the Iranian nuclear crisis and stop accusing the Islamic Republic of time-wasting.

Russian officials have refused to commit publicly to a December deadline laid down by some Western powers for Iran to ease the international concerns over its nuclear drive.

Iran is due to give an answer in the next days to a UN atomic agency-brokered plan for Iranian uranium to be further enriched abroad in states including Russia which is seen as a possible solution to the stand-off.

Western powers suspect Iran could be seeking to develop an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, but Tehran strongly denies the allegations that it is seeking a nuclear weapon.