TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran denied on Monday it had bought Russia's advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, after Israeli defence sources said the Islamic Republic could take delivery of the weapons by the end of the year.
Western and Israeli experts have said that if Tehranacquired the S-300 missile batteries it would make any strikeby Israel or the United States on Iran's nuclear sites tougher.
Iran is involved in a row over its nuclear plans. TheUnited States and Israel say Tehran wants to build atomic bombsdespite Tehran's denials. They have not ruled out militaryaction if diplomacy fails to resolve the dispute.
Asked whether it had bought missiles from Russia, includingthe S-300 system, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman HassanQashqavi said: "No such thing is correct."
He also told the news conference: "Our missile andtechnical capability completely depends on Iranian scientificcapability, as has been demonstrated so far."
Iran has frequently announced test firings of domesticallyproduced missiles, which military commanders say will targetU.S. interests and Israel if Iran is attacked.
There have been conflicting reports about whether Iran wasbuying the S-300 system. Defence Minister Mostafa MohammadNajjar said last year Russia had agreed to deliver the missilesto Iran under a signed contract. Russia denied such plans.
The U.S. Department of Defence said in July that Iran wasnot expected to receive the anti-aircraft system this year.
Those remarks followed comments by Israeli defence sourceswho said they expected Iran to take delivery by the end of2008.
First delivery of the S-300 batteries was expected as soonas early September, one Israeli source had said, though itcould take six to 12 months for them to be deployed andoperable.
Western experts say many of Iran's missiles and otherweapons it produces domestically are based on or modifiedversions of arms bought from others, such as China and NorthKorea.
(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, writing by Edmund Blair;Editing by Dominic Evans)
