Iran says in talks with Russia on new nuclear plant

Iran is in talks with Russia to build a second nuclear plant in the Islamic Republic, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday.

“There are conversations now ongoing with the Russians to provide this,” he told reporters at a press conference, adding “but they are very general conversations.”

Iran, accused by Western nations of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, is under four sets of UN sanctions for refusing for years to bow to international demands to rein in uranium enrichment.

But ahead of his address to the annual UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said Iran would halt production of low-enriched uranium, which can be a stepping stone to produce atomic weapons, if the West gives it the material in return.

“If they give us the 20 percent enriched uranium this very week, we will cease the domestic enrichment of uranium of up to 20 percent this very week. We only want the 20 percent enrichment for our domestic consumption,” Ahmadinejad told The New York Times on Thursday.