UN Security Council talks on more sanctions against Iran were cancelled when Russia withdrew from a meeting planned this week in New York, Russian officials said Wednesday.

An official in the Russian delegation to the UN told news agency Ria-Novosti that Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov could not take attend due to "the intensity of his schedule."

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said it saw no need for an emergency session on Iran.

Nicosia, Sept 24: Gholamhossein Nejabat, Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) of Iran, has said that 20 subsidiaries of NPC have been earmarked for privatization.

He added that so far Carbon Iran, Farabi, Abadan, Kharg, Isfahan, Arak, Shiraz, Razi and Polika Karaj have been wholly privatized and that 52 of the 81 subsidiaries of the National Petrochemical Company have been semi-privatized.

Nejabad told journalists that more companies would be privatized if Iran Privatization Organisation approved the transfer of other petrochemical companies as a single block or holding companies.

New York - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived Monday at the United Nations in New York in the face of protests, amid the US presidential election fray.

Jewish-American groups held a rally Monday morning outside UN headquarters in New York and planned another major demonstration on Tuesday, when Ahmadinejad is to give his formal address to the General Assembly.

The rally was catapulted into the US political limelight last week after it emerged that Sarah Palin, vice presidential running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, was scheduled to speak.

Tehran  - The world powers cannot stop Iran's nuclear progress, state media on Monday quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying upon his arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

"The talks made by some (countries) will be no hurdle in the course of progress of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad told state television network IRIB in New York.

The president was referring to the demand by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (5+1) for Iran to suspend its controversial uranium enrichment process or face further political isolation and financial sanctions.

Vienna  - Questions about Iran's past nuclear activities and about Syria's alleged secret nuclear programme are expected to dominate a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) board that opened in Vienna on Monday.

The 35-member IAEA Board of Governors is set to discuss Iran's lack of cooperation in explaining a set of past studies, which the international nuclear watchdog says could be related to an effort to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran strongly denies that it ever intended to use nuclear technology for military purposes.

Islamabad, Sept 22: After India, Iran has also reportedly expressed serious concerns over the security situation in Pakistan, and asked Islamabad to make enough security arrangements for the billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.

The demand came a day after Saturday’s bombing in which at least 60 people were killed and more than 200 injured.