1ST LEAD: Russian foreign minister worried about Iran "war plans"

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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern Tuesday about possible war plans against Iran during a visit by his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, reports said.

"We are concerned about the increasing number of reports claiming that a military strike against Iran was seriously being considered," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Such action would have unforeseen consequences for the region, he warned, with Afghanistan and Iraq already having major problems.

People had to be prepared for the worst, Kouchner said in France ahead of his trip to Moscow, referring to the Iranian nuclear programme. He was talking about war, he said. But Kouchner rejected claims he was a warmonger.

The French minister was planning to promote stricter sanctions against Iran in Moscow.

As one of the veto powers on the UN Security Council, Russia has so far opposed stricter measures against the leadership in Tehran.

Lavrov has been the acting foreign minister since the government was dismissed last week.

Earlier, Kouchner had called for stricter sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme in an interview published Tuesday by Russian daily Nezavissimaya Gazeta.

"We demand an answer as to why the Iranians want to engage in uranium enrichment," Kouchner said in the interview.

The distribution of nuclear weapons was "one of the greatest dangers at the beginning of the 21st century," Kouchner added.

He arrived on Monday evening for a visit in Moscow. The previous day he had warned of a threat of war, prompting angry reaction from Tehran.

"New additional measures should be taken, especially within a UN framework," Kouchner said.

The sanctions were intended to force the Iranian government to be more open about its plans, he said.

Kouchner said he was also planning to discuss the Kosovo issue as well as the violation of human rights and press freedom in Russia with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

The French minister was promoting an expansion of the strategic partnership between the European Union and Russia.

Iranian authorities on Monday had reacted angrily to Kouchner's warning that the world should prepare for a war over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini accused France of echoing the policies of the United States and of undermining the positions of the EU and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Interviewed on French television station LCI late Sunday, Kouchner said, "We must prepare for the worst." Asked what the worst was, he replied, "It is war."

Iran meanwhile has steadfastly declared that its nuclear programme is intended exclusively for the production of energy, not arms.

Kouchner's warning on Iran followed the line taken by President Nicolas Sarkozy in an August 27 speech in which he warned that the Iranian nuclear crisis presented the world with "a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."

The Iranian government news agency IRNA accused Sarkozy and Kouchner of "extremism" and charged that the French president wanted "to copy the White House."

For his part, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday urged countries to refrain from talking about an escalation of the Iran nuclear crisis.

Speaking at the annual General Conference of the IAEA in Vienna, ElBaradei said there was no "clear and present danger" from Iran. dpa sm im mau sv gma sc