WASHINGTON, July 8 „ The Bush administration said Saturday that it would open formal negotiations with Russia on a long-discussed civilian nuclear agreement that would pave the way for Russia to become one of the world’s largest repositories of spent nuclear fuel.

President Vladimir V. Putin has been looking to expand the country’s role in the multibillion nuclear power business. The United States has traditionally opposed any such arrangement, in part because of concerns about the safety of Russian nuclear facilities, and because the country has helped Iran build its first major nuclear reactor.

But administration officials said that once Mr. Bush endorsed Mr. Putin’s proposal last year for Iran to conduct uranium enrichment inside Russia „ rather than in Iran, where the administration fears it would be diverted to weapons „ it made little sense to bar ordinary civilian nuclear exchanges with Russia.

In announcing the change of course, the White House made it clear that in return, it expected Mr. Putin’s cooperation in what promises to be a tense confrontation with Iran on forcing it to give up the enrichment of uranium. Mr. Bush has charged that the enrichment is intended to feed a secret nuclear weapons program. “We have made clear to Russia that for an agreement on peaceful nuke cooperation to go forward, we will need active cooperation in blocking Iran’s attempts to obtain nuclear weapons,” said Peter Watkins, a White House spokesman.
nytimes.com

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