Russia would welcome a Iranian decision to send uranium to third countries for further enrichment and processing into fuel for power plants, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

"If Iran is ready to return to the earlier agreed-on plan, we will only welcome this," Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

Lavrov made his remark after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly dropped his opposition to sending uranium abroad for enrichment on Wednesday, saying there was "no problem."

"Some people made a fuss about it. But there is no problem. We will seal a contract and we will give you 3.5% uranium to enrich it to 20% in four or five months and return it to us," Ahmadinejad said in an interview aired on state TV.

Ahmadinejad dismissed concerns that the uranium would not be returned. In such a case, Iran would continue enriching uranium by itself, he said.

Iran, which is already under three sets of UN sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, recently announced plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities. The West suspects Iran of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, but the Islamic republic says it needs nuclear power solely for civilian purposes.

Under a plan drawn up in October at IAEA talks in Vienna between Iran, the UN, the U.S., Russia and France, the Islamic Republic was supposed to ship out its low-enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be enriched and then sent to France to prepare it for use in an Iranian reactor.

However, Iran subsequently refused to send its stockpile to France and Russia, and the U.S. proposed allowing Tehran to send its uranium to any of several nations, including Turkey.

Under the new plan, Iran would ship 900 kg out of the total of 1200 kg to Turkey for further enrichment, after which it would be sent to France for processing into fuel for Iranian power plants, and returned to Iran via Turkey.

However, Tehran rejected the proposal and suggested it could consider a simultaneous swap of its low-enriched uranium for 20%-enriched uranium, but that the exchange would have to take place on its own territory.