MOSCOW, May 24: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday defended Moscow’s nuclear cooperation with Iran and dismissed US fears it could be helping the Islamic republic develop weapons of mass destruction.

Putin and US President George W. Bush, who signed a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty at their Kremlin summit, appeared at odds over Iran after Bush said his Russian counterpart shared his worries about weapons’ proliferation.

“I worry about Iran and I’m confident that Vladimir Putin worries about Iran, and that was confirmed today,” Bush told a joint press conference after three hours of talks.

“We spoke very frankly and honestly about the need to make sure that a non-transparent government run by radical clerics doesn’t get their hands on weapons of mass destruction,” Bush added.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday joined in the chorus against Iran, saying that Tehran was on a path to acquiring nuclear weapons as part of a clear and unambiguous effort to develop the full spectrum of weapons of mass destruction.

“You bet I’m concerned about Iran and its unambiguous effort to develop — already has some weapons of mass destruction — but to develop the full spectrum of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

“It’s clear. It’s unambiguous,” he said.

But Putin stoutly defended Russia’s contract to build a nuclear power plant at Bushehr in western Iran, denying it would help the regime to develop weapons-grade plutonium that could be put to military use.

“Russia’s cooperation with Iran does not harm the non-proliferation process. ... Our cooperation with Iran is limited to energy, it only has an economic character,” Putin said.

And the Russian president sought to turn the tables on Bush by noting that the United States was engaged in a nuclear cooperation program with North Korea which he said was similar to the Bushehr project.

Iran was not the only country to give grounds for concern, Putin said, adding: “We are concerned by the development of certain missile programmes in Taiwan.”

Putin also suggested that the role played by Western companies in building up nuclear programs in countries suspected of trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction was greater than their Russian counterparts’.

“The missile and nuclear programs of those countries in large part are developing on the basis of technology provided by Western firms,” he said.

Bush warned Russia in a speech in Germany on Thursday that Moscow’s nuclear links with Tehran could help the Islamic republic, whom he has denounced as part of an “axis of evil along with Iraq and North Korea”, to develop weapons of mass destruction.

A top Russian government official said Friday that Iran would not be able to use Russia’s nuclear cooperation program for military ends.

“Iran cannot and will not use for any ends enriched nuclear fuel” at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, and this fuel will be shipped back to Russia once used, the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Deputy Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Reshetnikov as saying.—AFP