TEHRAN, Oct 19: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had made a proposal over the Iranian atomic programme, contradicting Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, media reported on Friday.

Ali Larijani had said on Wednesday Mr Putin made a special proposal to break the deadlock over the Iranian nuclear programme in talks with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his landmark visit to Iran this week.

But Mr Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency: “There was no nuclear proposal.”

According to the official news agency IRNA, Mr Ahmadinejad said Mr Putin’s only message was “the message of friendship and cooperation.” When pressed over whether there was a nuclear proposal, he said: “Putin did not talk about this.” Mr Larijani did not give details over the nature of the proposal, saying its content would be announced at a later date.

“Putin put forward a particular suggestion during his meeting with the supreme leader,” said Mr Larijani after Mr Putin’s visit on Tuesday, the first by a Kremlin chief since World War II.

Also Khamenei was quoted by the state-run IRNA news agency as telling Mr Putin: “We will consider what you said and your proposal.”

Mr Ahmadinejad did not explain his contradiction of the remarks by Mr Larijani, an influential figure in the Islamic republic who heads the supreme national security council and is an ex-head of state broadcasting.

The confusion over the reports of Mr Putin’s purported proposal, which has not been confirmed by the Kremlin, comes amid continued deadlock between Iran and the West over the Iranian nuclear programme.

Tehran is flatly refusing to give into the West’s key demand, namely a suspension of uranium enrichment activities which the United States and its allies fear could be used to make nuclear weapons.—AFP