"No third country will be threatened through the defense and military co-operation of the two countries", the Iranian Minister said Tuesday after signing the accord, estimated by Russian experts at seven billions US Dollars.

The "framework" of the agreement, said to be valid for five years, was agreed last March when Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited Moscow officially on the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

"Russia provides Iran with any defensive weapons it needs to protect its security. Russia would implement all contracts it has signed with Iran", Head of Duma’s Commission for the Defence Affairs, Mr. Andrey Nikolayev had said Monday, prior of the arrival of the Iranian military delegation to Moscow.

S-300PMU-1 and S-300PMU-2 Favorit missile systems needed for protection of strategic facilities like the 1000 Megawatts nuclear powered electricity plant that Russia is building in the Persian gulf port of Bushehr are among other weapons Iran is keen to buy, but military specialists say it is not certain that Moscow would want to sell them to Tehran "because of American and Israeli concerns".

Mr. Shahram Chubin, an Iranian military expert say arms that Russia would sell to Iran are not among the best in the world, "but the problem is that the Islamic Republic has no other choice", he pointed out.

Iranian armed forces, particularly the air force, was equipped with American weapons, but this dependence shifted in favour of Moscow after the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the sudden invasion of Iran by Iraqi troops a year after.

"Depending on Russian and North Korean arms is not in the best interests of Iranian defence capabilities, especially when it comes to the air power", Mr. Chubin added, quoted by the Persian service of the BBC.

Ivanov reiterated Tehran and Moscow's opposition to the "globalisation of security", saying the promotion of any security cooperation among independent countries could play a major role in managing international crises and reducing military tensions in the world, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

Ivanov highlighted Iran's importance in Russian foreign policy and said the two countries' co-operation in their software and hardware military industries sectors would be in line with promoting security and lasting peace in the region.

He described Shamkhani's visit as "important" since it is taking place at a "sensitive time when the international fight against terrorism has been in the day's agenda of world countries", according to IRNA.

"Russia and Iran in practice, and not in words, are fighting this plague of the century" the Russian Defence Minister added, referring to the US-led international coalition aimed at "uprooting" terrorism.

"It is not concealed to anyone that Afghanistan has turned out to be an international centre of terrorism and production of narcotics", Mr. Ivanov added.

Both Iran and Russia have condemned the 11 September terrorist attack on New York and on the Pentagon in Washington, but Iran insists that the anti-terrorist war must be conducted by the United Nations.

Talking to reporters in Tehran before his departure for Moscow, Mr. Shamkhani said he would discuss with Russian officials bilateral military issues that would include a number of arms agreements, developments in the Caspian Sea as well as the threatened U.S. military strike on Afghanistan. Shamkhani said common borders between Iran and Russia in the Caspian Sea and the region of the Caucasus has provided the two countries with "massive possibilities and capacities to promote bilateral ties."

"The geographical position of the two countries gives them the important responsibility of strengthening bilateral ties which can serve as a guarantee to their stability and that of the region as a whole", he added.

"With the existence of common opportunities and threats in the international and regional security and the defence fields of the two countries, Russia has provided very suitable grounds for forging bilateral ties", Shamkhani observed, quoted by IRNA.

Meanwhile, the Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted unidentified Russian sources in the military-industrial complex as saying Iran wants to supply the 936-kilometer (577-mile) Iranian-Afghan border with Russian defence equipment. Such a system would be part of a larger military package the Iranians are seeking from Russia.

According to the agency, the system would help Iran stop the flow of narcotics from Afghanistan through its territory and limit the loss of Iranian border guards trying to block the drug trade. ENDS IRAN RUSSIA MILITARY 21001