Russia-U.S. meeting

MOSCOW, March 19 (UPI) -- Russia plans to complete a nuclear power plant for Iran this year, a move in apparent conflict with U.S. moves to limit Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The United States is among countries fearful Iran is using its nuclear program to become an atomic weapons state. Iran denies this and, whether they buy the Tehran position or not, the Russian leadership hasn't been totally supportive of U.S. stances against Iran on the issue and has long helped with Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant.

While U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Moscow for discussions on nuclear arms reductions and the Iranian situation, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was in southern Russia assuring the Bushehr plant would soon go online.

The timing of Putin's announcement Thursday was reminiscent of the declaration last week that Israel had approved additional housing units in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israeli leaders. U.S. policy has been against such additional expansion and the announcement was seen as a diplomatic slap at the Obama administration.

Clinton, when asked about Putin's stance on the Iranian nuclear plant said moving on the project would "be premature" because "we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians."

The official U.S. position is that the Iranians have a right to a civilian nuclear program -- such as Bushehr -- as long as there are assurances the technology wasn't diverted to a weapons program. Steps Iran has taken in recent months make such a distinction unclear.