MOSCOW - NEW sanctions against Iran cannot be excluded if there is no movement forward in the standoff over its nuclear drive, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in comments released by the Kremlin on Saturday.

In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, Mr Medvedev confirmed Russia was prepared to help with work in enriching Iranian uranium if Tehran agreed to a UN-brokered plan to break the deadlock.

'If the Iranian leadership takes a less constructive position, then in theory anything is possible,' Mr Medvedev said in the interview, a full transcript of which was released by the Kremlin.

He said that he had discussed this with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.

'I do not want that all this ends up with the adopting of international sanctions because sanctions, as a rule, lead in a complex and dangerous direction. But if there is no movement forward then no-one is going to exclude such a scenario.'

Russia - a permanent veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council - is seen as a key player in the Iranian nuclear crisis due to its close political and economic ties with Teheran. It is also building the country's first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr. -- AFP