U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry, in Moscow for high-level talks Monday, said Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin had rejected a personal plea to scrap plans for a deal with Iran that has become a stumbling block in relations between the two superpowers.


Chernomyrdin, Perry told a press conference after a day of talks, had refused to reconsider Russia's $1 billion deal to complete the construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran, saying that it would not advance that country's fledgling nuclear weapons program.


"He expressed confidence that they could do this in such a way to avoid the nuclear weapons proliferation problem," Perry told reporters at the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel.


But Perry, who said he was concerned Iran would acquire not only nuclear raw materials but also nuclear expertise as a result of the deal, told Chernomyrdin he had his doubts.


"I told him I did not share that confidence," Perry said, adding that Iran has no reason to build a reactor other than to help assemble a nuclear bomb. "Iran is a country that is awash in oil. The need for a nuclear reactor to generate electricity certainly does not exist."


A spokesman for the Nuclear Power Ministry, whose chief attended the talks between Chernomyrdin and Perry, told Itar-Tass that Russia has had a contract with Iran to build the reactor since 1992 and had no intention of backing out.


"There is no basis to reject that agreement," spokesman Georgy Kaurov said. "We are obligated to fulfill it." Some Russian officials have suggested that U.S. pressure against the deal with Iran was a thinly veiled attempt to keep Russia out of the international market for constructing nuclear reactors.


Washington has thrown considerable weight into its efforts to convince Moscow not to fulfill its contract with Tehran. Perry also held talks with Defense Minister Pavel Grachev on this and other subjects. Grachev, however, said his ministry is not involved in the sale and construction of reactors.


The two men also discussed the war in Chechnya. Perry said the conflict remained a negative aspect in U.S.-Russian relations.


According to Monday's New York Times, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher gave Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev intelligence reports indicating that Iran was indeed working to develop a nuclear bomb.


A senior U.S. defense official, who spoke only on the condition that his name not be used, confirmed the report. "We have shared information with Russia," he said, adding that Russia has on occasion shared intelligence information with the United States.


Perry said Chernomyrdin agreed that a nuclear weapon in Iran would be highly destabilizing.


"He was very direct and very clear that he agreed with my assessment that nuclear weapons in Iran would be a very bad development for many countries, including Russia," Perry said.


Chernomyrdin reportedly offered Perry some assurance that Russia would take steps to ensure that the nuclear reactor did not act as a hothouse for an atom bomb.


"He offered me some level of confidence that Russia would actually take steps that would be useful in that regard," Perry said.


Though Perry and Chernomyrdin did not discuss the issue in technical detail, one possibility is that Russia would ask Iran to return all spent nuclear fuel.


Perry said his visit had some successes. He said Grachev had agreed that it was time for Russia to take a more active role in the Partnership for Peace, a post-Cold War security plan for Europe in conjunction with NATO.


Disagreements over NATO's anticipated expansion into the former Soviet sphere, however, remain a major stumbling block. Grachev even told Perry that a rapid expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe might bring "countermeasures" from Moscow.