September 12, 2003	Friday	Rajab 14, 1424

MOSCOW, Sept 11: Russia supports a draft resolution at the UN nuclear watchdog that would set an October 31 deadline for Iran to prove that it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons, a source at the Russian atomic energy ministry said.

“Russia has to be in the majority on this question,” the source said.

The comments came as the United States and its key allies lobbied fellow members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to support the resolution in backroom talks at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna.

The draft was a softer version of a resolution proposed earlier, the source said in Moscow.

“Russians are huddling together with the Americans to find a compromise in a softer resolution,” the source said.

“Iran has to be given room to maneuver so they are not pushed into a corner like North Korea and withdraw from the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty),” the source said.

The negotiations led to the suspension of a key meeting scheduled Thursday of the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors. The session is now expected to be held Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said his government was willing to cooperate, but warned setting a deadline would complicate matters, and again denied Tehran was developing nuclear weapons.—AFP