MOSCOW, Sept. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin told Iran's new ambassador to Russia Tuesday that his country would boost relations with Iran while observing international law.

    "Russia is going to pursue the policy of strengthening the goodneighborly relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Putin said as he received credentials from Iran's new ambassador to Russia Gholamreza Ansari.

    "This approach is shared by the new Iranian leadership, which inspires hope for further steady development of Russian-Iranian cooperation," Putin said.

    The Russian leader said that during his talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York on the sidelines of the UN summit, both leaders reaffirmed their willingness to tackle allproblems constructively to the benefit of both peoples and in the interests of international stability and security.

    Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Iran under a 1-billion-US dollar contract. Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, who also heads Iran's nuclear energy agency, visited Russia earlier this month to discuss bilateral ties, including nuclear energy cooperation, with Russian officials.

    The European Union, which has been in talks with Teheran to persuade it to scrap uranium enrichment, bristled at Iran's Augustmove to renew uranium conversion activities and warned of hauling Iran up before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

    Russia, however, remains opposed to such a move.

    Moscow, which insists on Iran's right to develop peaceful nuclear technologies, has urged Teheran to halt uranium conversionand continue cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Enditem