Russia to freeze missile sale to Iran, says France

Paris: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has told France that Moscow will freeze a delivery of surface-to-air missiles to Iran, President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said on Friday following talks between the two men.

Russia has a contract to sell S-300 missiles to Tehran and there was confusion whether the deal could go ahead under the terms of a fourth round of United Nations sanctions introduced earlier this week to penalise Iran over its nuclear programme.

However a spokesman for Sarkozy told reporters that Putin had confirmed the delivery would be frozen. The official quoted the Russian leader as saying Iran was "very unhappy" and wanted to impose penalties on Moscow for breaking the contract.