Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted yesterday he would make a historic trip to Iran to discuss its nuclear program, scotching doubts about whether a reported assassination plot would force him to cancel.

"Of course I am going to Iran," Putin told a news conference after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "If you react to various threats and recommendations of the security services, then you should sit at home."

Kremlin officials had earlier said plans for Putin's visit were in doubt after a Russian news agency reported, quoting a single unnamed security source, that plotters were planning to assassinate Putin in Teheran.

Putin's visit to Iran, the first by a Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin went in 1943, has drawn intense interest because of Russia's role as a mediator in six-power talks designed to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The Kremlin leader said patience and negotiation were the best tools for dealing with Iran and said trying to intimidate Teheran was "hopeless".

"But to demonstrate patience and look for a way out is possible and should be done...," Putin said. "If we have a chance to keep up these direct contacts, then we will do it, hoping for a positive, mutually advantageous result."

Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Sunday evening that Putin had been warned by his special services of a possible assassination plot during his visit to Teheran this week.

Kremlin officials declined to comment in detail on the report, which was repeated on state television channels.

"A reliable source in one of the Russian special services, has received information from several sources outside Russia, that during the president of Russia's visit to Teheran an assassination attempt is being plotted," Interfax said.

Russian television channels said previous plots to kill Putin had been foiled in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2001 and in St Petersburg in 2000.

Iran dismissed the report as baseless, saying it was "psychological warfare" calculated by Teheran's enemies - an apparent reference to Western powers - to undermine Russian-Iranian relations.

Putin's trip to Teheran was being watched closely by Western capitals anxious to curb an Iranian nuclear program they fear masks a drive for an atomic bomb. Iran denies A-bomb ambitions and is building a nuclear reactor with Russian help.

Putin was officially traveling to Tehran to take part in a summit of Caspian Sea states.

But a planned private meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could give him a chance to seek a peaceful compromise over Teheran's nuclear program and to demonstrate his independence from Washington on Middle East issues.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/16/2007 page12)