Iran gets 4th batch of nuclear fuel from Russia

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran received a fourth delivery of nuclear fuel from Russia on Sunday to power Tehran's first atomic power plant and it expects four more before the consignment is complete, an official Iranian news agency said.

Russia delivered the first batch of about 80 tonnes of uranium fuel rods to Iran on December 17 and urged Tehran to scrap its own, controversial program for making fuel.

Iran says it wants the capability to make its own fuel so that it will have secure supplies in the future.

"The fourth shipment of Bushehr nuclear power plant fuel arrived in Iran," IRNA news agency reported, quoting Iran's atomic energy production and development company.

The shipment of 11 tonnes arrived on Sunday.

"The process of delivering the remaining four shipments will take place based on a specific timetable," it said without giving dates.

Washington and other Western powers fear Iran's uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities are aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran says it needs nuclear fuel for electricity production.

Bushehr has caused friction for many years between Russia and Western powers who are pressing for restrictions on economic cooperation with Iran because of its refusal to heed U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment.

Russia says the Bushehr project is being built under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said the Bushehr plant, on the Gulf coast in southwest Iran, would start up in mid-2008.

Foreign ministers from major powers will meet in Berlin on Tuesday to discuss a possible third U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran for its refusal to halt enrichment.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian, writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Robert Woodward)