Putin Warns Us Against Military Action on Iran

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, today warned the US not to use force against Iran in the current nuclear dispute.

Any military intervention in the Caspian Sea area would be unacceptable, Mr Putin declared as he attended a regional summit in Tehran.

"We should not even think of making use of force in this region," Mr Putin told his fellow leaders.

His remarks also appeared directed at Azerbaijan, amid Russian media speculation that the US might be trying to negotiate with Azerbaijan on the right to use military facilities in the republic, something Azeri officials deny.

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Mr Putin said.

The first Kremlin leader to visit Iran since Stalin in 1943, Mr Putin is holding talks with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, on Teheran's nuclear dispute with the west during the five country summit, which also includes Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

Mr Ahmadinejad has defied international calls to suspend uranium enrichment despite two rounds of UN sanctions, saying Iran has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.

But the Bush administration suspects that Iran wants to build nuclear bombs. The United States has not ruled out military action against Iran over the nuclear issue.

The Russian president, who shrugged off reports of a possible assassination plot in Iran, was welcomed at the airport by the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki.

Russia has opposed western plans for tougher sanctions on Iran, as well as drawing a red line on the use of force on the nuclear dispute.

"If we have a chance to keep up these direct contacts, then we will do it, hoping for a positive, mutually advantageous result," Mr Putin said in Germany before his arrival in Tehran.

He has also angered the US by saying that there was no evidence that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

The US has refused to rule out military action if diplomacy does not succeed, a position repeated yesterday by the US defense secretary, Robert Gates, who said "all options" were open.

Tehran has trumpeted the summit and Mr Putin's visit as evidence that US efforts to isolate it are failing. Mr Putin has called for patience and more talks, arguing that trying to intimidate Tehran was "hopeless".

He is expected to meet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters such as nuclear policy.

Mr Putin's talks are also likely to cover a dispute over Russian delays in building the Bushehr atomic power plant, Iran's first. Russia says Iran is behind in payments, but Iran says it is not and that Moscow is bowing to western pressure.

"Iranian and Russian technical committees are passing the final stage of their talks ... We hope to hear good news about Bushehr power plant in the next hours," a foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said yesterday.

Apart from talks on Iran's nuclear program, Mr Putin will hold talks with the other leaders, aimed at closer cooperation on oil and gas resources. Officials do not expect a breakthrough on long-running differences over how to divide the Caspian Sea and carve up its mineral wealth.