MOSCOW, March 1 (RIA Novosti) - The flight of a delegation from Iran due to arrive in Moscow for a further round of talks on a Russian initiative that could help resolve the crisis around Tehran's controversial nuclear programs has been delayed prior to take-off, Russian diplomats in the Iranian capital said Wednesday.
A source in the Russian Embassy said "technical reasons" were to blame for the holdup, but was unable to specify what this meant.
The visit of the delegation, led by Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, should be the third meeting between Iran and Russia to discuss a proposal made by Moscow to establish a joint venture on its territory to enrich uranium for Iranian nuclear power plants.
The mooted deal between Iran and Russia, which is currently building an $800-million plant near the port city of Bushehr in the south of Iran, is seen as a potential compromise in the crisis standoff over the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic, which some countries suspect of pursuing a covert weapons program. Although Tehran has consistently said it only wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes, the United States and other nations have concerns, as enriched uranium is a vital component for an atomic bomb.
The first meeting took place in Moscow on February 20 with Iranian delegates describing it as constructive and positive but without any concrete results.
The second meeting was held in Tehran on February 25-26 involving Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, and Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Agazadeh. The two officials reached a preliminary agreement to set up the joint venture and decided to settle all details of the arrangement in Moscow.
Speaking Monday at a government session chaired by Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the idea to enrich uranium in Russia for nuclear power plants in the Islamic Republic, which unilaterally lifted a two-year moratorium on nuclear research earlier this year, was part of a common effort to resolve the current crisis. 
Lavrov said Moscow was working on the idea together with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the European trio of Britain, France and Germany, and partners in the United States and China.
