Russia's proposal to establish a joint Russian-Iranian venture for the uranium enrichment remains in force, Head of the Federal Nuclear Power Agency Sergei Kiriyenko said yesterday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russia's enrichment proposal "was and remains on the negotiation table as part of a big package of proposals to the Islamic Republic of Iran, including all the agreements" with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kiriyenko said before the opening of an international conference on energy security in Moscow.

Russia's proposal is a way to reach a compromise between the positions of the IAEA and Iran, Kiriyenko said.

"Iran has a sovereign right" to adopt any decisions on the creation of the joint venture," Kiriyenko underlined.

Kiriyenko took part in several rounds of Russian-Iranian consultations on that problem. On February 25-26, Kiriyenko held talks with the Iranian partners in Teheran and Bushehr.

Kiriyenko's proposal came a day after Tehran's refusal of the joint venture.

Tehran declared on Sunday that it refused to continue the discussion of the Russian proposal on the joint venture. Hamid- Reza Asefi, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told a press conference in Teheran that "Russia's project was no longer on the agenda."

Asefi dismissed as "unacceptable" a decision to turn over a report on Iran, made by IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei at the IAEA March session, to the UN Security Council.

The dispute over Iran's nuclear program escalated after Tehran resumed nuclear fuel research in January, which prompted the IAEA decision last month to report its case to the UN Security Council.

Iran then stopped the IAEA's snap inspections of its nuclear sites and resumed small-scale uranium enrichment work.

Iran denies the U.S. charge of developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, insisting on its right to peaceful nuclear technology.

The UN Security Council's five permanent members held closed consultations late Wednesday on the approach the powerful organ would take in handling the crisis over Iran's disputed nuclear program. UN officials said council members had received ElBaradei's report.