- (AFP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that
his country will continue helping Iran to develop its nuclear programme,
despite international opposition, it has emerged.
-
- In an interview with the BBC conducted on Friday, Putin
was forthright about an issue which has caused widespread concern, especially
in Washington.
-
- "We won't let the issue of nuclear proliferation
be used to stop Russian companies dealing with Iran," he said in an
extract of the interview on the BBC's website.
-
- The interview, for BBC television's Breakfast with Frost
programme, was due to be shown in full later Sunday.
-
- Russia has drawn US ire for building Iran's first nuclear
reactor at Bushehr and for insisting that the oil-rich country is not seeking
to develop a nuclear weapons program.
-
- Putin himself is due to arrive in Britain on Tuesday
for the first state visit to Britain by a Russian leader since Tsar Alexander
II in 1874.
-
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