MOSCOW, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia supports the initiatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency on comprehensive approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle, an IAEA official said Friday at an international conference.

Yuri Sokolov, IAEA Deputy Director General for Nuclear Energy, said that the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power (Rosatom) Alexander Rumyantsev had expressed their support for the IAEA initiatives on a rational approach to the nuclear fuel cycle.

On July 13-15 Moscow hosted an international conference to examine comprehensive technical and organizational approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Sokolov said the international conference, "had allowed the parties to better understand one another and provided a good basis for further cooperation."

Vladimir Kuchinov, head of the Rosatom department for international and external economic affairs, said that international efforts to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime must be consolidated for the future development of nuclear energy.

The conference reported that the existing methods for producing and transporting nuclear fuel were at "a technically acceptable level despite the considerable growth of nuclear energy powers." They provide a basis for the development of international nuclear fuel cycle centers.

Talking about the establishment of an international center for processing spent nuclear fuel, Kuchinov said the issue should be discussed at an international level under the supervision of the IAEA.

He said that the proposal to establish a reserve stock of nuclear fuel under IAEA control had been discussed for many years. He added that some political, technical and organizational issues still had to be addressed.

"Setting up international working groups should be the next step toward establishing a reserve stock of nuclear fuel under the IAEA," he added.