"Clearly the extension of Russian nuclear co-operation with Iran remains an issue of utmost concern to us", a visibly frustrated Abraham told reporters in Moscow on Thursday, after several days of talks with top Russian officials, including Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev.

The Russian government on Friday outlined plans to build five more civilian nuclear reactors in Iran despite U.S and Israeli objections.

This would be in addition to Russia's 1990s agreement with Iran to build a nuclear plant at the port of Booshehr on the Persian Gulf coast, a 800 US Dollars worth project that has long infuriated both Washington and Tel Aviv, claiming that the plant would help the Islamic Republic to acquire atomic bomb.

The plant was to be finished this year, but Russian experts say it could not be completed before 2004.

Both Iran and Russia reject the accusation, repeating that their nuclear co-operation is for peaceful purposes and experts from the Vienna-based International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAAE) regularly monitor the works at the Booshehr plant.

The release of the 10-year plan for additional reactors caught President Bush and his foreign policy advisers off guard.

"It's fair to say the White House was infuriated by that and extremely surprised", said the official, who asked not to be identified. "What we were told was: It's a draft and it's not done."

Mr. Rumyantsev has assured US envoys that Moscow would not allow the Iranians to have access to the spent radioactive material.

"Iranian official say they want nuclear power stations because the electricity produced by such stations are cheaper and, ecologically speaking, cleaner than traditional Diesel powered electric plants, but with natural gas resources second to Russia, the world’s biggest possessor of natural gas, the question is that why not building gas powered stations that are cheaper and much cleaner", pointed out an Iranian expert on nuclear energy.

For their part, Iranian political analysts warns that considering the political confusion and chaos which is the Iranian Mollahrchy’s trademark, no one can say for sure who will have the ultimate control of the country’s nuclear arsenal, if ever build.

Not only the Islamic Republic has no relations with Israel, but several of its top clerical leaders, including the ruling troika made of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, respectively the leader, the president and the chairman of the influential Expediency Council, have repeatedly called for the destruction of the Jewish State, which they describes as a "cancer tumour".

"We consistently urge Russia to cease all nuclear co-operation with Iran, including its assistance to the reactor in Booshehr", Abraham said.

U.S. Energy Secretary and Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who handle arms and control issues, met with Rumyantsev and urged him to stop co-operating with Iran on building the nuclear reactors.

On the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific security forum in Brunei, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and voiced concern about the Booshehr plant.

A senior U.S. official who briefed reporters said Ivanov promised to look into the situation.

The senior official dismissed a suggestion in "The Washington Post" that the Administration might launch a pre-emptive attack against the plant to avoid allowing it to become operational.

"Booshehr has become the subject of debate in Washington and Tel Aviv over whether the plant should be allowed to come on line, as scheduled in the next two or three years", said the Post in a report published Monday 29 July.

"There is some support for pre-emption within the Administration", the paper said, quoting Mr. Anthony Cordesman, a prominent export on Middle East.

A Russian expert on Iran, Rajab Safarov, said he expected portions of the program might be watered down before it gets final approval -- in part because of pressure from the West and pro-Western officials in Russia.

Safarov said plans to boost ties with Iran do not mean President Vladimir Putin has abandoned his priority of close ties with the West -- but signal that Russia will not bow to the West when it believes it is against its interests

Bush has spoken with his Russian counterpart several times in recent weeks about Iran, but it has emerged as one issue on which the two have been unable to resolve their differences despite the close political friendship they have developed since 11 September attack on New York and Washington that the Americans attributes to Al-Qa’eda terrorist organisation.

Russian president's advisor for security affairs Yuri Baturin, in a recent meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Moscow, Mr. Mehdi Safari, had expressed satisfaction over the trend of Tehran-Moscow nuclear cooperation and said there should be no doubt over continuation of such cooperation.

Editor’s note: Mr. Haeri wrote this article with the help of reports from Associated Press, Pravda and The Moscow Times.