Rice presses Moscow over Iran's nuclear program, health Russian democracy

Taipei Times:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ... On her first trip abroad as the top US diplomat, the Soviet specialist will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Turkey as the Bush administration pressures Moscow to keep on hold a fuel-supply deal for an Iranian reactor.

"We, of course, have worked ... with the Russians. And their efforts to cooperate with the Iranians on civilian nuclear power have been much more attuned recently to [our] concerns about the proliferation risk," Rice said on Friday in Britain on the first leg of a 10-stop trip to Europe and the Middle East.

"While it does not eliminate the proliferation risk, it certainly does help to mitigate [it]," she added. ...

Rice, who has sought to allay fears of a possible military strike, says Russia's decision against delivering the fuel is part of the international community's diplomatic strategy against Tehran. ...

Some hardline US officials see the Russian supply deal as crucial to avoiding an escalation of the crisis. ...

Rice's week-long trip also seeks to repair ties with nations like Russia that were frayed because of the US-led invasion of Iraq last year. ...

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement this week that the talks would prepare for a summit meeting between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to be held on Feb. 24 in the Slovak capital of Bratislava. ...