Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, has made it clear he does not agree with Western demands for sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, insisting he will maintain "close co-operation" with Iran.

Oil exports account for nearly half of Iran's revenues - being cut off from the West means most is exported to Asian countries – and a big percentage of that to China.

In return China is investing billions in Iran's gas and oil fields.

And as Al Jazeera's Nazanine Moshiri reports from Tehran, the Iranian capital, their trade links are becoming stronger.

How is Iran close to having nukes, is close like 20 years for you or what?
You know this just as well as i do

But you choose to keep repeating this lie, that makes you a war-mongerer.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine has begun talks with the United States on the possibility of Washington using information gathered by its radars, Interfax Ukraine cited Kiev's envoy as saying on Thursday.

The news is likely to irk Russia, which is highly sensitive to any hint of U.S. military partnership with former Soviet republics.

Washington last week denied it wanted to station U.S. radar systems in Ukraine, after President Barack Obama scrapped a planned missile shield based in central Europe.

But the U.S. State Department said countries such as Ukraine could contribute early warning information.

"This issue is in the process of working discussions. It is still at a beginning stage," Interfax cited the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oleh Shamshur, as saying. He added previous Ukrainian leaders had backed this idea.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it had no comment.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday he was concerned at the prospect of U.S. talks on missile defense with countries that are not part of the NATO military alliance.

Shamshur suggested Russia had missed its chance to use information from Ukrainian radars. Russia canceled a post-Soviet radar data sharing deal last year, complaining the installations in Ukraine were outdated.

"We are also talking about the question of using our defense radars across Ukraine's territory, which, as you all know, Russia has declined to use," Shamshur was cited as saying.

MOSCOW — A top Russian diplomat suggested Thursday that the U.S. should not talk with non-NATO nations about a prospective missile shield, Russian news agencies reported.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov's remarks appeared to reflect alarm over the idea that Western-leaning neighbors such as Ukraine or Georgia, Russia's foe in a war last year, could potentially host U.S. missile defense facilities.

Ryabkov said Russia is concerned about what he said were contacts between the U.S. and nations outside NATO on missile defense, state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA Novosti reported.

President Barack Obama removed a major irritant in relations with Russia last month by scrapping U.S. plans to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic — deployments Russia treated as a threat.

The Kremlin has praised Obama for the decision, but Russian officials have also said they want to know details about what system the U.S. will put in place instead.

Ryabkov's comments served as a warning that the United States should avoid taking steps that would threaten Russia or turning to its neighbors as potential partners in missile defense without consulting with Moscow.

"We are experiencing the concerns that emerge when major questions of strategic stability should be considered in a partner-like manner," he was quoted as saying.

Russia and the U.S. have discussed cooperating on missile defense, and Ryabkov represented Russia in talks on the issue in Moscow on Monday ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit.

Ryabkov did not name any specific nations as being in contact with the U.S. about missile defense, but he spoke in response to a question about Russian media reports suggesting the U.S. was in talks with Ukraine on the possibility of using its radar stations as part of a missile shield.

The U.S. has not held negotiations with Ukraine regarding the use of Ukrainian radar stations, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Maj. Shawn Turner, said Thursday.

Tensions over Georgia and uncertainty over the future of Ukraine, whose pro-Western president wants the country to join NATO, are hurdles in efforts by Russia and the U.S. to mend strained ties.

What’s more, Patrushev said, Russia is revising the rules for the employment of nukes to repel conventionally armed attackers, “not only in large-scale, but also in a regional and even a local war.”

The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

, all this talk about Russia's strategy being a threat to Georgia or Ukraine is rediculous. As was plainly demonstrated during the South Ossetia War, Russia can easily defeat Georgia by limited conventional means

US' aggressive rhetoric towards Iran on the other hand, could mean that Iran is potentially threatened by US nuclear strikes.