The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution supporting efforts by Russia and Turkey to end the nearly six-year conflict in Syria and jump-start peace negotiations.

Russia has said it will be at least six months before it can deliver a missile system to Iran, but the Kremlin confirmed a barter deal to supply Russian goods in exchange for Iranian oil was already being implemented.

Iran’s reformist-backed presidential candidate surged to a wide lead in early vote counting today, a top official said, suggesting that a flurry of late support could have swayed a race which once appeared solidly in the hands of Tehran’s ruling clerics.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad won a pledge of support yesterday from Iran as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.

Iran deliberately delayed its announcement that it had captured an American surveillance drone to test US reaction, the country’s foreign minister said today.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices today, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country’s reformist movement, opposition websites and activists reported.

An Iranian official said today that the Islamic republic has increased its production to more than 300 tons of a gas used for uranium enrichment, a semi-official news agency reported.

An Iranian court acquitted a former nuclear negotiator of spying charges today but convicted him of acting against the Islamic government.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, and EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, will meet in Lisbon, Portugal, on Saturday for a new round of talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, state television reported today.

Crude oil prices plunged more than 1 dollar a barrel today as tensions eased in the stand-off between Britain and Iran over captive British military personnel.

Oil prices dropped today as tensions in the Britain-Iran stand-off eased.

Iran said tonight it hoped to resolve the seized British Navy personnel crisis using diplomacy and without putting the captives on trial.

Iran said today it is considering whether to participate in a Baghdad-organised conference of Iraq's neighbours, which the United States plans to attend.

OTHER developments yesterday in the Middle East crisis

A top Iranian envoy was in Syria today for talks on the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in a meeting that brought together the guerrilla organisation’s two key sponsors, according to Iranian news reports.

Iran today promised to formally respond on August 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the stand-off over its suspect nuclear programme.

Iran will respond in mid-August to the Western incentives for a rolling back of its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana today began talks with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on a package of incentives designed to coax Iran to stop uranium enrichment.

Undaunted by the difficult war in Iraq, US President George Bush today reaffirmed his strike-first policy against terrorists and enemy nations and said Iran may pose the biggest challenge for America.

Russia today dampened hopes of a deal with Iran that would ease concerns about its suspected nuclear weapons programme, reminding Tehran that it must first freeze its domestic uranium enrichment.

Iran today offered to help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant group, state radio reported.

Russian and Iranian delegations ended a day of high-profile nuclear talks without any visible breakthrough, but agreed to continue their negotiations on Moscow’s proposal to enrich uranium for Iran as a way of reducing suspicion that Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Russia expressed limited hope today as Russian and Iranian officials started talks in Moscow on an offer to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as a final opportunity for the Islamic regime to avoid the threat of international sanctions over Western concerns it is developing nuclear weapons.

IRAN will carry through its threat to end tough UN nuclear inspections and resume ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment on an industrial scale, if it is hauled before the UN Security Council, a national security spokesman told AFP.

IRAN will only consider a compromise offer from Russia on its nuclear programme if the deal acknowledges its right to enrich uranium on Iranian soil, a government has said.

Iran plans to construct two more nuclear power plants despite international concern over its atomic programme, a top official said today.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator has called for more countries to join the three European states engaged in talks about Tehran’s contentious nuclear program.

Iran will soon offer new proposals for negotiations with Europe over its controversial nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on state-run television today.

Iran resumed uranium conversion activities today at a nuclear facility – a step that Europeans and the US warned would prompt them to seek UN sanctions against Tehran.

Iran this evening agreed to a two-day delay in reopening its nuclear processing plant here after receiving a request from the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency.

TIRED of waiting for European negotiators to make a proposal in return for a nuclear freeze, Iran yesterday warned it is preparing to restart some of its suspended atomic activities.

IRANIANS reacted with anger and fear yesterday to a rare string of bomb attacks that killed nine people and wounded more than 70 ahead of presidential elections.

An explosion near the coastal town of Deylam in Iran was caused during the construction of a dam, a top security official said.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator said today that Tehran wanted to resolve decades of differences with the United States but warned that a US military strike would not be able to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iran has suspended its enrichment of uranium and has accepted additional inspections of its nuclear facilities, a senior official said today.

IRAN will suspend uranium enrichment and allow spot checks of its nuclear programme, as sought by the UN nuclear watchdog agency, a senior Iranian official said yesterday after three European foreign ministers went to Tehran to press the international community’s case.

An Iranian opposition group said today that Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards have crossed into Iraq where the group is based, killing 10 of its members in clashes that lasted several days.