VIENNA, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - The IAEA supports Russia's proposal to set up an international uranium enrichment center, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he had met with Russia's nuclear chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, to discuss the proposal.

He said it was a step in the right direction.

Kiriyenko said Russia and the IAEA would start work immediately on settling up an enrichment center.

He also said such centers could be created in the United States and Germany. "The more centers there are in the world, the better," the Russian nuclear chief said.

Kiriyenko said earlier the Russian uranium enrichment center could be opened at a plant in Angarsk in east Siberia in 2007.

He proposed granting the status of a special zone to the center to ensure legal guarantees for its functioning.

"We should use all ideas and proposals of different countries today," he said.

Kiriyenko also said the center could have an annual reserve of low enriched uranium.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested at the beginning of the year that international uranium enrichment centers be set up in Russia, amid international tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

To mark the 50th anniversary in Vienna of the first IAEA conference, Kiriyenko presented ElBaradei with a model of the legendary Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin, which was launched in 1959 and decommissioned 30 years later.