Russia to freeze missile sale to Iran

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 program. However a spokesman for Sarkozy told reporters that Putin had confirmed the delivery would be frozen. (Reuters)