Russia won't join ultimatums to Iran over N-issue

MOSCOW: Russia will not join any ultimatums over the problem of nuclear proliferation, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday in a thinly veiled reference to US-led pressure on Iran.

"We do not intend to join any sort of ultimatum, which only pushes the situation into a dead end, striking a blow against the authority of the UN Security Council," Putin told Russian diplomats in Moscow in the presence of journalists.

"I am convinced that dialogue and not isolation of one or another state is what leads to resolution of crises," Putin said.

"In the sphere of non-proliferation we consider it effective to work on the political-diplomatic level and to search for compromises on the basis of international law," Putin said.

Russia, a key economic ally of Iran, has consistently resisted Western pressure in the current international impasse over US and European claims that Tehran is using a Russia-backed civilian nuclear programme to mask a secret bomb-making project.