Russia urges Iran to comply on nuclear program

By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia urged Iran on Tuesday to comply with demands by the United Nations Security Council to curb its nuclear program, but Tehran was defiant.

The Russian comments underlined Moscow's commitment to tackle Tehran after the Security Council passed a resolution on Monday imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.

Russia and China have been lukewarm about taking tough action on Iran compared with the European Union and with the United States, which fears it is seeking a nuclear bomb.

"This resolution is a serious political signal to Tehran about the need to cooperate with the U.N. Security Council," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The resolution imposed more travel and financial curbs on Iranian individuals and companies, expanded a ban on trade in items with both civilian and military uses, and called for increased vigilance over Iranian financial institutions.

Tehran, which has ignored all Council demands to freeze its uranium enrichment program, rejected the new resolution.

"This resolution ... has been issued based on political motives and hostile orientations and lacks value, is unacceptable and condemned," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted by IRNA news agency as saying.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "the Iranian nation's fearlessness and resistance is viewed favorably in all countries of the world."

Iran says its work on uranium enrichment -- which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons -- is part of a program meant purely to generate electricity.

It has previously dismissed the impact of sanctions, saying it has a cushion of crude revenues thanks to windfall earnings as the world's fourth largest oil producer.

But business executives say the measures are making foreigners increasingly wary of investing in Iran, slowing down major oil and other projects, and pushing up trading costs as more foreign banks avoid dealings with the Islamic Republic.

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Diplomats said the new sanctions were a moderate tightening and the most Washington could get after a U.S. intelligence report said Iran had scrapped an atom bomb program in 2003.

"We were pleased yesterday to see that the U.N. Security Council went forward with a third round of sanctions," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "A lot of people thought that wasn't going to be possible after our National Intelligence Estimate came out in December ..."

Efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear program have been driven by permanent Security Council members the United States, Britain and France, working along with Germany.