All payment conflicts stalling Russia's completion of Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, have been resolved, Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said Thursday, according to dpa. "The difficulties that existed with the Iranian client are resolved ... we have an agreement on the construction timeline," Atomstroiexport head Sergei Shmatko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. "We absolutely plan to build Bushehr," he added. The United States and some European countries have pushed for sanctions against Iran, alleging that the Bushehr power plant was a cover for ambitions to build nuclear weapons. But a US intelligence report released last week seemed to support Iranian and Russian claims that the Islamic state's nuclear programme is purely for civilian use. Upon news of the US report, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Iran to ease all of the international community's "outstanding doubts" by cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). On Thursday, Iran ended the latest round of technical talks with a team of IAEA inspectors. The talks were "another step forward towards settling the nuclear dispute," Iran said according to state news agency IRNA. "Another step forward was taken towards settling the nuclear dispute and clarifying outstanding issues," Iran's IAEA envoy Ali- Asqar Soltanieh said. Iran said the inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog proved the country's readiness to remove all ambiguities over its nuclear programme, even as IAEA staff were completing their inspection of Russia's first nuclear fuel shipments destined for Bushehr. On a visit to Iran in October, Putin promised his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Russia would complete the power plant, but did not specify a deadline. Neither did Shmatko on Thursday confirm plans to send the nuclear fuel needed for Bushehr to start functioning. Russia has repeatedly pushed back the start-up date for the plant, citing delays in payments from Tehran. Observers say Russia has delayed fuel deliveries because it does not fully trust Ahmadinejad and fears an international backlash amid concern over Iran's nuclear programme. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki for bilateral talks in Moscow on Thursday reiterated that a settlement of Iran's nuclear problem would have to be based on IAEA rules and principles. "We note progress between the IAEA and Tehran and encourage further headway to remove the remaining questions and fully wipe the problem from the international agenda," Lavrov said. A range of economic issues, including burgeoning trade between the two countries and further cooperation in energy projects, were discussed during the cooperations talks Thursday. During a meeting with the head of Russia's atomic energy agency, Rosatom, Mottaki also proposed the creation of a joint Russian- Iranian gas company that "could work on the territory of Central Asia and Persian Gulf countries."
