The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who is also Iran's vice president, led a delegation to Moscow for two days of talks with Russian officials on the work on Iran's first nuclear power plant. The two sides agreed on the launch date of the Bushehr plant, being built with Russian help under a 1995 contract.

Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov said after talks with Aghazadeh that agreements need to be worked out that "respect Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy and lift the concerns of the international community as far as the nonproliferation regime is concerned," the Interfax news agency reported.

The nuclear issue should be solved on the basis of the proposals by the six world powers and Iran's initiatives, he said.

Aghazadeh called Russia "a key element" in the talks on the nuclear issue and said Iran remains convinced that the problem should be solved through talks.

The United States accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under a civilian front, but Iran insists its nuclear program is only aimed at generating power to meet surging domestic demand.

Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States offered a package in mid-June offering incentives and multilateral talks to Iran in exchange for a freeze on its uranium enrichment work.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani is scheduled to meet the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana soon for a third time since Iran offered its response to the package in late August.

Both Ivanov and Aghazadeh said they attach great importance to the meeting between Solana and Larijani.

"We hope the negotiations will help (both sides) reach agreements that will bring about full-scale talks on a settlement of the Iranian issue," Ivanov said.