The Iranian nuclear problem should be settled only by political and diplomatic methods, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier reiterated yesterday in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

"There is no alternative to the political-diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear problem, the main task of which is ensuring the nonproliferation regime." the ministers were quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

The two countries' foreign ministers held talks within the framework of the eighth round of Russian-German interstate consultations underway in Tomsk, under the chairmanship of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The ministers confirmed "the importance of the Russian president's initiative on the creation of international centers for the provision of services in the sphere of the nuclear cycle under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the strengthening of the regime of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," Itar-Tass reported.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a presidential statement on March 29, calling on Iran to resume suspension of alluranium enrichment-related activities and asked the IAEA chief El Baradei to report the latest progress on Iranian compliance to the IAEA and the Security Council within 30 days.

Iran said on Tuesday it would suspend relations with the IAEA if sanctions were imposed.

Following the ministerial meeting, Lavrov and Steinmeier presented to the Russian and German leaders a report on the bilateral interdepartmental high-level security group.

In the report, the priorities of the two countries' interaction in the fight against international terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime were specified, along with cooperation in the spheres of disarmament, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and strategic and military-political matters.

The Russian and German foreign ministers "synchronized watches on specific aspects of the two countries' interaction within the framework of the United Nations, the preparation of the Russia-EU summit due in May, and the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, as well as cooperation in the Russia-NASTO Council and OSCE," according to the news agency.

Putin, Merkel and several members of their governments met on April 26-27 in Tomsk for consultation. It was the second meeting between the two leaders after the new German Cabinet was formed in November 2005, and their first inter-state consultation. The Iranian nuclear issue was one of the main topics on their agenda.