Iran's top nuclear negotiator arrives in China for talks
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-26 09:15

Iran's top nuclear negotiator arrived in Beijing on Thursday, part of apparent efforts to cement support from allies as Tehran seeks to fend off European efforts to have it brought before the UN Security Council.

Iran's High Council of National Security Secretary Ali Larijani was scheduled to meet with top Chinese officials during his daylong trip, the Iranian Embassy said. No other details were released.

Larijani was originally to stay through Friday but the embassy said Larijani's meetings were scheduled to last only a day and that he would return to Iran after the visit.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

China, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, says it favors diplomacy in dealing with Iran's disputed nuclear activities. But the United States and Europe have been lobbying Beijing to take a tougher stand, and have sought its support for a European-led drive to have Iran brought to the UN council, which can impose a range of sanctions or other measures.

China, Russia and India are allies and trading partners of Iran and have been reluctant to see Tehran punished or ostracized through the Security Council.

Larijani met with Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov in Moscow on Tuesday, and was positive about a Russian proposal to allow Tehran to enrich its uranium in Russia.

China's hesitation over the Security Council referral has prompted suggestions that Beijing wants to avoid angering Iran, a major oil source for its energy-hungry economy.

US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who is visiting China this week, said Wednesday he warned Chinese leaders that allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons could threaten Beijing's crucial supplies of Middle Eastern oil.

Zoellick said he warned Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and other officials in meetings that if they were concerned about energy security, it would be "extremely dangerous" to allow nuclear weapons development in the Middle East, center of the world oil industry.

The West fears Iran wants to develop a nuclear bomb but Tehran says its intentions are peaceful and that it wants only civilian nuclear energy. Uranium enrichment is a possible precursor to making atomic weapons.

Iran removed International Atomic Energy Agency seals from equipment January 10, ending a 15-month moratorium, and announced it would restart research on nuclear fuel including what it described as small-scale enrichment. The move led Germany, Britain and France to call for the February 2 emergency board session.

With a week until the February 2 meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, high-level international diplomacy has intensified.

Larijani told reporters at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday that Tehran welcomes Moscow's offer to have Iran's uranium enriched in Russia. But, he said, the proposal needs more work and threatened to renew full-scale uranium enrichment if his country is referred to the UN Security Council.

Some critics say that Tehran is using the proposal, under which Iranian uranium would be enriched in Russia and returned to Iran for use in the country's reactors, to stall for time as diplomatic pressure over its nuclear activities mounts.