Deputy foreign ministers of the five UN Security Council members and Germany will gather April 16 in Shanghai to discuss plans to resume the talks on the Iranian nuclear issue in search for a diplomatic solution.
"These proposals are wider than the previous ones; they include economic incentives, security guarantees and access to modern technologies," Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Moscow-based Echo Moskvy radio.
Tehran has repeatedly rejected international demands to halt uranium enrichment, used both in weapons and electricity production, insisting it needs the process to generate electricity. The country is currently under three sets of UN sanctions over its uranium program.
Lavrov said there was no need to consider new sanctions against the Islamic Republic following today's announcement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that his country has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.
The UN Security Council passed a new resolution on Iran at the end of February, and Tehran has a 90-day deadline to respond, he said.
"The 90-day deadline has not expired yet," the minister said. "Let's wait and see what Iran's response will be."
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has around 3,000 functional enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear research center, which experts believe is enough to launch full-scale production of nuclear fuel.
Iran currently uses 'P-1' centrifuges that are prone to breakdown when working at high speed for long periods. However, the new centrifuges are believed to be the advanced 'P-2' model, which is more reliable and can enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels.
The country's leaders previously said that they intended to install 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz to make the country independent of nuclear fuel imports.
The country's nuclear program has contributed to tensions between Washington, with U.S. President George Bush refusing late last year to rule out military action against Teheran despite a report by the country's intelligence community which suggested that the Islamic Republic had halted attempts to create a nuclear bomb in 2003.
Lavrov reiterated on Tuesday that Russia acknowledges Iran's right for peaceful nuclear research as long as it is conducted under the strict IAEA guidelines and in accordance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
