Official denies receiving Russian nuclear proposal

? Iran denied on Sunday that it received a proposal to move its uranium enrichment facilities to Russian soil, a compromise Europe is seeking to resolve a standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.

Russia had announced Saturday that it sent the formal proposal to Tehran, which has insisted it would not agree to moving enrichment abroad.

The two nations’ contradictory statements may be the result of an Iranian attempt to gain time without directly rejecting a proposal from Moscow, a longtime ally.

“We have not received any particular plan yet,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

Uranium enrichment is a key step in the nuclear process that produces either fuel for a reactor or the material needed for a warhead.

The United States has accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists its program is aimed only at generating electricity.

Negotiators from Germany, France and Britain want to solve the dispute by having enrichment moved to Russia to ensure Iran cannot divert uranium to a weapons program.