Answering questions during an on-line conference, Putin urged Iran to respond faster to the package of incentives put forward by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, and said common sense should triumph in approaches to North Korea, which conducted controversial test missile launches on Wednesday.
Given that Tehran said it would only react to the Iran-6 proposals on August 22, Putin said, "I hope that Iranian partners will listen to the recommendations and proposals worked out by the six countries and given to Iran for consideration."
Russia, which is helping to build a nuclear power plant southwest of Tehran and has other commercial interests in the Islamic Republic, has consistently resisted UN sanctions pushed by the United States and the United Kingdom.
And Putin called for the matter to be returned to the competence of the UN's nuclear watchdog after it was referred to the Security Council in early June.
"It would be right if the problem returned not to the UN Security Council and we did not talk about any sanctions, but to the professionals at the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said. "I think it is possible if Iran positively responds to the incentives."
He said he hoped dialogue would start with Tehran before Russia's debut summit of the Group of Eight nations to open in less than 10 days' time.
"As the host of the G8 summit, I would personally prefer dialogue to start before G8 leaders gather in St. Petersburg," the president said.
Iran is expected to be an issue when the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan join Putin in Russia's second city, but it is not expected to dominate the meeting.
However, he was less optimistic about North Korea and condemned Russia's communist neighbor for failing to notify the world about Wednesday's tests.
North Korea officially announced Wednesday that it had conducted test launches of at least seven ballistic missiles and claimed it was the country's sovereign right. The communist nation launched the missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, despite a moratorium on missile tests.
Putin said Russia was disappointed with the tests but suggested that the six-nation talks seeking to resolve the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula should step up a gear.
But he also said common sense should triumph in relations with what the U.S. terms a "rogue state."
"We would prefer it if Russia and the international community did not receive such presents," he said referring to the lack of warning over the missile tests.
But striking a note of caution, he said "these events should not lead to emotions that would conquer common sense when considering such issues."
He said there were no grounds to believe the communist state's program was aimed against Russia.
"We have no reason to think that North Korea's missile program is aimed at Russia because the defense capabilities of Russia and North Korea are incomparable," he said.
In fact, he said the secret nation led by Kim Jong-il had not reached a technological level where it would be able to build a missile capable of flying 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles). There had been media speculation that a missile would target Alaska flying over Japan.
Initial reports suggested that at least one of the seven missiles might have hit Russian waters, but Putin said the nation's warning systems could not confirm that.
"Our national monitoring system does not confirm the information that these missiles fell near Russian borders," he said.
