Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plans to seek support from his French, Russian and Chinese counterparts for an Iranian nuclear fuel deal, the Iranian president's website said late Sunday.

Lula told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a telephone conversation he would hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, in order to get their backing for the May 17 Tehran accord, the website said.

"The Tehran accord has placed the permanent members of the (UN Security) Council in a sensitive position," Lula was quoted as telling Ahmadinejad.

"In order to get support for the deal... I will talk this week to Sarkozy, Medvedev and my Chinese counterpart. The Islamic republic can be definitely assured of complete help from Brazil."

Lula and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 17 extracted an agreement from Iran to deposit 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium in Turkey in exchange, later, for nuclear fuel for a Tehran reactor to make medical isotopes.

They hailed the deal as a diplomatic breakthrough and said it was reached in line with demands set out to them by the US government to avert an escalation against Iran.

The United States is pushing a UN resolution to punish Iran with a fourth set of sanctions after deeming it is not doing enough to meet international demands to show its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Washington said the accord did not go far enough, notably with Iran insisting it would still enrich its remaining uranium stock, and the sanctions resolution was submitted to the Security Council, where Brazil and Turkey are non-permanent members.

Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, said he appreciated Lula's "brave" stance over the deal, the website said.

"We will continue on this path until the end," the Iranian leader was quoted as saying.

"The Tehran accord was a big world action in line with justice, peace and security. The two countries (Brazil and Iran) will stand next to each other against those opposing justice," he said.

earlier related report
Japan urges Iran to halt uranium enrichment
Tokyo (AFP) May 31, 2010 - Japan urged Iran Monday to halt its controversial uranium enrichment programme, hinting Tokyo might support additional international sanctions against the country, officials said.

The move came as Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Tokyo at Tehran's request after the United States presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council.

The United States is pushing for a resolution that would punish Iran with a fourth set of sanctions because of fears that Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is peaceful.

Okada told Mottaki fresh sanctions would be "unavoidable" if Tehran continued a programme of enriching uranium to about 20 percent, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Okada urged Tehran to stop the programme "for the benefit of the Iranian people," according to statement, which summarised his telephone conversation later in the day with British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Hague told Okada they shared the same position on the Iranian nuclear issue, the release said.

Okada told Japanese media after the meeting that what he had told Mottaki had "connotations" that Japan might support fresh sanctions.

"I asked Iran to make a crucial political decision" to avert additional sanctions, he added.

Okada quoted Mottaki as telling him that Iran's nuclear development was strictly for peaceful purposes and that there was no need for the sanctions.

Okada welcomed a recent accord brokered by Brazil and Turkey to transport Iran's low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel.

Under the deal, Iran has committed to deposit 1,200 kilograms (2,640 pounds) of low-enriched uranium in Turkey in return for reactor fuel.

But the deal drew a cool reaction from world powers led by the United States, which has pushed for new sanctions against Tehran. Western governments say the deal fails to address concerns about Iran's nuclear programme.

Mottaki told a news conference on Monday that he remained hopeful the swap deal would go ahead despite the frosty reaction from the United States.

"I don't expect that the deal will fail because of the US position," Mottaki said.

"I can't say how big the chance is in percentage terms, but I have great hopes for the realisation of the deal," he said, according to a Japanese translation of his remarks, which were made in Farsi.

France and Russia had previously offered to supply Iran with the higher-enriched fuel.

Mottaki said the deal with Ankara and Brasilia was "different because it was built on mutual trust, but it was the same as previous proposals in that it was a swap deal."

He also said that "Japan has made a similar proposal in talks with the Iranian ambassador to Japan."

In February, Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani said in Tokyo that Iran would study a Japanese offer to enrich uranium for Tehran to allow it access to nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Mottaki said Monday that "the plan to ship 1,200 kilograms of uranium to Japan was also discussed, because we have trust in countries like Japan, Turkey and Brazil."

"Then finally we reached the deal that we ship 1,200 kilograms to Turkey. We'd hoped that there would be a four-party deal including Japan."

Mottaki reiterated that Iran is committed to the civilian use of its nuclear power and observing the nuclear nonproliferation treaty as well as the rules of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

He also accused Israel of being "the only country in the Middle East that holds nuclear weapons" and called for it to ratify the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.