Not productive to link US missile defense, Iran: Russian president

"If we are to speak about some sort of exchange, the question has not been presented in such a way, because it is not productive," he was quoted by AFP as saying when asked about a letter U.S. President Barack Obama wrote to him regarding the two issues.

 

"Our American partners are ready to discuss this problem," added Medvedev at a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. "This is already good," he added.

    Â

Obama offered in a secret letter to his Russian counterpart to halt the deployment of a missile defense system in eastern Europe in exchange for Moscow's help in stopping Iran from developing long-range weapons, The New York Times reported earlier on Tuesday.

Medvedev was hand delivered in Moscow by top administration officials three weeks ago, the paper said.Â

The letter said the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.

"It's almost saying to them, put up or shut up," an unnamed senior administration official told the newspaper. "It's not that the Russians get to say; We’ll try and therefore you have to suspend. It says the threat has to go away," he added.

Iran has rejected repeated calls by the U.N. Security Council -- of which Russia is a permanent member -- for a halt to uranium enrichment, despite three sets of sanctions being imposed for its defiance.

The United States and its European allies believe that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge that Tehran denies. Iran recently began testing its Bushehr nuclear plant, whose construction has been in the hands of Russia since 1995.

Moscow has not responded to the letter yet, but a Russian official said Monday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would have something to say on missile defense to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when they meet Friday in Geneva, the paper said.

Lavrov is scheduled to hold talks with Clinton in Geneva on Friday in the highest-level meeting between the two nations since Obama took office.

Lavrov urged the United States on Monday to restore diplomatic relations with Iran, Russian news agencies reported. "This would be an important element in stabilizing the situation in the region," he said.

Obama and Medvedev will meet for the first time on April 2 in London, officials said Monday.