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Moscow not supplying weapons to Iran,
                  Israeli minister says 

                  By Associated Press, 03/04/98 

                      MOSCOW - An Israeli government minister said yesterday that he had
                      no reason to believe Moscow was supplying Iran with missile
                  technology, but that Israel remained concerned that military know-how
                  could still be seeping out of Russia. 
                  Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who is now Israel's trade and
                  industry minister, traveled to Russia this week to seek firm guarantees that
                  Russia's dual-purpose technology - that which has both commercial and
                  defense uses - does not find its way to Iran. 
                  ''There is absolutely no evidence and I have no basis to believe that the
                  Russian government consciously favors helping Iran to acquire weapons,
                  rockets,'' Sharansky said at the end of his two-day consultations with
                  Russian government officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
                  and Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov. 

                  Sharansky said he was pleased that Russia had taken legislative steps to end
                  leaks of dangerous military know-how. 
                  ''But clearly decrees are very important only if they quickly begin to have an
                  impact in practice,'' he said, noting that Russian technologies and Russian
                  scientists' knowledge had been used in Iran. 
                  Russia maintains close contacts with Iran, while the United States and Israel
                  regard it as a rogue state that supports terrorism.