Russia will not support "excessive" sanctions against its economic partner Iran, its foreign minister said Wednesday, as the UN Security Council considered imposing harsher measures intended to push Teheran to freeze its nuclear program.

Sergey Lavrov also denied allegations that Moscow has told Iran it would not deliver nuclear fuel for the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant unless Teheran complies with the United Nations' demands.

"There is no link whatsoever between the UN resolution ... and the implementation of the Bushehr project," Lavrov told lawmakers in the lower parliament house.

European and US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks said on Tuesday that Moscow had bluntly told Teheran it would not ship fuel for Bushehr until Teheran freezes its uranium enrichment program, as demanded by the UN Security Council.

Lavrov dismissed the claims as an "unscrupulous trick."

"It's not the first time that we are seeing such an unscrupulous approach aimed at driving a wedge between us and Iran," he said.

He said Russia "will not support excessive sanctions against Iran," adding that the draft resolution has been softened at Moscow's behest.

Russia has said fuel for Bushehr would not be supplied this month, as had been planned earlier, because of alleged Iranian payment delays that prompted Moscow to indefinitely postpone the reactor's launch, which had been set for September.

Proposed new sanctions in a draft resolution now before the Security Council would ban Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of 28 additional individuals and organizations involved in the country's nuclear and missile programs. The package also calls for voluntary restrictions on travel by the individuals subject to sanctions, on arms sales to Iran, and on new financial assistance or loans to the Iranian government. No date has been set for a vote.

Lavrov said that an earlier, tougher version of the draft resolution that included broader restrictions on officials' travel and a ban on credits to Iran had been softened on Russia's advice. "We ... have agreed to influence Iran by gradually applying proportionate pressure," Lavrov said.

He said that amendments introduced by South Africa, Indonesia and other nations "merit the most serious consideration."

South Africa's proposed amendments would drastically weaken the draft resolution by authorizing a 90-day "time out" on all sanctions, dropping an embargo on arms exports and eliminating financial sanctions targeting Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and an Iranian bank.

(China Daily via agencies, March 22, 2007)