Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, gestures
during his joint news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice,Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at the State Department in Washington.
-Xinhua
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday that the United States
still supports Russian proposal that would establish a Russia-Iran joint venture
on Russian soil.
"We have been supportive of the Russian proposal, which would be a joint
venture with enrichment and reprocessing on Russian soil and in which there
would be an effort or we believe minimal proliferation risk," Rice said after
talks with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergeri Lavrov.
While the United States supports a civil nuclear program, Rice said that
there needs to be a way to provide for civil nuclear power that does not have a
proliferation risk.
The United States thinks that the Russian proposal could be achieved, Rice
said.
The United States has said that it supports Russia's proposal on Iran's
nuclear issue but stressed that Iran is not moving to the direction of
dismantling its nuclear capability and the country can not be allowed to have a
nuclear weapon.