By Edmund Blair
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia urged Iran on Tuesday to complywith demands by the United Nations Security Council to curb itsnuclear programme, but Tehran was defiant.
The Russian comments underlined Moscow's commitment totackle Tehran after the Security Council passed a resolution onMonday imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran for itsrefusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities.
Russia and China have been lukewarm about taking toughaction on Iran compared with the European Union and with theUnited States, which fears it is seeking a nuclear bomb.
"This resolution is a serious political signal to Tehranabout the need to cooperate with the U.N. Security Council,"Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The resolution imposed more travel and financial curbs onIranian individuals and companies, expanded a ban on trade initems with both civilian and military uses, and called forincreased vigilance over Iranian financial institutions.
Tehran, which has ignored all Council demands to freeze itsuranium enrichment programme, rejected the new resolution.
"This resolution ... has been issued based on politicalmotives and hostile orientations and lacks value, isunacceptable and condemned," Foreign Ministry spokesmanMohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted by IRNA news agency as saying.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "the Iraniannation's fearlessness and resistance is viewed favourably inall countries of the world."
Iran says its work on uranium enrichment -- which canproduce fuel for nuclear power plants or atomic weapons -- ispart of a programme meant purely to generate electricity.
It has previously dismissed the impact of sanctions, sayingit has a cushion of crude revenues thanks to windfall earningsas the world's fourth largest oil producer.
But business executives say the measures are makingforeigners increasingly wary of investing in Iran, slowing downmajor oil and other projects, and pushing up trading costs asmore foreign banks avoid dealings with the Islamic Republic.
TRADE WITH CHINA
Diplomats said the new sanctions were a moderate tighteningand the most Washington could get after a U.S. intelligencereport said Iran had scrapped an atom bomb programme in 2003.
"We were pleased yesterday to see that the U.N. SecurityCouncil went forward with a third round of sanctions," WhiteHouse spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "A lot of people thoughtthat wasn't going to be possible after our NationalIntelligence Estimate came out in December ..."
Efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear programme have been drivenby permanent Security Council members the United States,Britain and France, working along with Germany.
Permanent members Russia and China have resisted strongsanctions, which they say would make Iran unwilling tocooperate on international safeguards meant to stop nuclearproliferation.
China, an increasingly important commercial partner asWestern businesses scale back dealings with Tehran, said thenew sanctions would not affect its trade with Iran.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Ganghe told a newsconference his country's trade ties with Iran "have nocorrelation with Iran's nuclear plans and also do not goagainst the U.N. Security Council's resolutions".
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the U.N. resolution was "anuneasy compromise" from which all the "excessive political andeconomic demands by hardliners" had been dropped.
It urged permanent Council members, plus Germany, to"demonstrate their readiness for serious cooperation withIran."
But it also said: "We expect Iran's leadership to analysethoroughly the declaration by the six foreign ministers as wellas the contents of the adopted resolution, and opt in favour ofmeeting demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) and Security Council."
WORRIES OVER WEAPONISATION
In Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottakireiterated an Iranian assertion that a February 22 report bythe IAEA had cleared up questions about its nuclear programme,and said there was no justification for the sanctions.
IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei denied this on Monday. Hesaid improved Iranian transparency had settled some questions,but intelligence suggesting Tehran was trying to "weaponise"nuclear materials remained a pressing issue.
Weaponisation usually refers to the process of makingnuclear warheads for delivery on missiles. Iran said theintelligence was fabricated by the United States.
While Iran and the IAEA disputed the details, ordinarypeople in Tehran said they were the ones who were sufferingfrom rising prices that they blamed on the sanctions.
White House spokeswoman Perino said: "It's unfortunate forthe Iranian people that their regime continues to isolate themin this way, but that's the choice that their regime has made."
Asked whether Washington would push for a fourth round ofsanctions, she said: "We just finished the third round, so Ithink let's see. I think the most important next step is thatcountries implement the sanctions and make sure that theyfollow through on that obligation."
(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow, BenBlanchard in Beijing, Hossein Jaseb in Tehran and StephanieNebehay in Geneva)
(Writing by Myra MacDonald)
