The proposal came after the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council met to discuss a resolution that would apply sanctions to Iran.

At the Friday meeting, Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the other country's representatives of the revisions Moscow wants to see made.

"We think that the resolution we are discussing now should on the one hand preclude situations where people and countries could be helping Iranians ... in developing things which could raise concern about non-proliferation. But at the same time, and it's very important, another key element of our philosophy for this draft resolution is that it should leave the doors open for our talks with Iranians."

However, Churkin would not detail the changes his country wants when briefing reporters later in the day.

European nations last week proposed sanctions that ban the sale of missiles and atomic technology to Iran and end most UN assistance for its nuclear programs.

The EU had proposed that Iran at least temporarily freeze enrichment as a condition for multilateral talks aimed at erasing suspicions it may be trying to build nuclear arms in violation of its treaty commitments.

The Chinese representative on the issue, Wang Guangya, said his country feels the current version of the resolution is "a bit too tough."

"It might corner the Iranians. But I believe that, China always argues that, first of all this case of the Iranians is different from North Korea, so you cannot just apply the same standards. Secondly, we believe that sanction measures taken by the Security Council have to be in stages. Thirdly, we believe that the sanction measures have to in some way be putting political pressure on the Iranians to come back to negotiations."

US ambassador John Bolton said the five permanent members of the Security Council would be sending the Russian proposal to their capitals to be studied, and that their ambassadors would likely meet again in New York next week.