Iran and Russia have had particularly warm relations in recent years. But Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in Moscow Tuesday to discuss a number of emerging problems. BBC regional analyst Malcolm Haslett asks is the Russian/Iranian friendship cooling?

On the main issue of the day - the crisis over Iraq - Russia and Iran hold similar positions. They strongly opposed the idea of air strikes against Iraq.

So in public at least, Mr Kharrazi and his Russian counterpart, Yevgeny Primakov, may focus on this issue. But they will also have to spend some time trying to dispel several clouds, which have recently appeared in the previously sunny sky over their relations.

Both Russian and Iranian newspapers have noted in the last week that there are disagreements over the nuclear power station being built in Bushehr in southern Iran.

This scheme, originally started by Germany before the Iranian revolution, is being completed with the help of Russian expertise and nuclear equipment. But the Russian minister for Nuclear Energy, Viktor Mikhailov, last week announced that construction of the buildings in Bushehr was well behind schedule, and that Russia would step in and complete construction of those, too.

The Iranian daily, Farda, has reported that Mr Mikhailov was recently prevented by Iranian security from seeing the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholamreza Aghazade.

That could explain some of Mr Mikhailov's frustration. But one of Farda's editors told the BBC he thought Mr Mikhailov himself was, as he put it, "playing games".

The Iranian journalist said that Russia, bowing to pressure from the United States, was sometimes cooperative, but was sometimes critical of Iran and held back from full cooperation.

That's not the interpretation put on the incident by some Western observers.

A report in the Washington Post recalls that some US and Israeli officials still question whether Russian technology provided for the Bushehr plant might not help the Iranians develop a nuclear weapon potential. Such people, it's suggested, may see Russia's determination to complete the project on time in a more negative light.

Russian-Iranian disagreements over Bushehr are not the only ones Mr Kharrazi and Mr Primakov will have to face; sources in Teheran suggest Iran is upset and angry about Russia's apparent volte-face over exploitation of the rich resources of the Caspian Sea.

Previously Teheran and Moscow stood side by side in favour of joint exploitation by all five Caspian coastal states. But in the last two weeks it's emerged that Russia is willing to accept the division of the sea into national sectors, at least as far as mineral resources are concerned.
 

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