He met in conference with Hasan Rukhani, his Iranian counterpart, to debate the issue, reports Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
As for a nuclear plant Russian experts are building in Bushehr, in Iran's south, its Unit One will be commissioned next year to start exploitation a year later, announced Mr. Ivanov.
Iran is fully complying with an additional protocol to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty it signed last spring, pointed out Mr. Rukhani as he confirmed civil orientation of his country's nuclear R&D and industry.
Iran signed the treaty in 1970, and the Muslim clerical regime established with the Islamic revolution of 1979 stayed true to it.
As regional issues came up at the conference table, Igor Ivanov spoke up against third countries intervening in Central Asian and Caucasian affairs.
The US Administration has proclaimed Central Asia and the Caucasus its interest zone to further entangle regional developments. Even despite that, Russia is firmly set against interference from without and especially against third countries' military presence in the area, the press service of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council quotes Igor Ivanov.
It is up to countries within the region to maintain their own security. That is Moscow's firm conviction, he said.
Mr. Ivanov hopes the Caspian Sea legal status will be eventually settled.
The sooner it is, and the sooner the five littoral countries come to an accord on the issue, the more the regional security and stability cause will gain, replied Mr. Rukhani.
NATO is out for presence in that part of the world-aspirations that threaten to upset the regional balance, and that make the five littoral countries' security alliance all the moreessential, he went on.
The conferees also discussed Iranian-Russian political and economic partnership, says the Supreme Council press service.
In yesterday's statement, Hamid Reza Asefi, spokesman of Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed hope for an early settlement of technicalities for Moscow and Teheran to sign a protocol on which the Bushehr plant will take depleted nuclear fuel back to Russia. The arrangement will speed up plant construction and put an end to global apprehensions on the point, say analysts.
Iran hopes all predicaments will be settled and the signing will not be put off as both countries are interested in the document, stressed Mr. Asefi.
Russian experts started 1,000 megawatt Unit One construction in Bushehr in the mid-1990s. A protocol on spent fuel return is among essential provisos for its commissioning.
