In a new twist to the ongoing imbroglio over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the nation has ruled out moving its uranium enrichment program to Russia.

In recent weeks, Russia has offered to host Iran's enrichment program to allow international monitoring of the program. The proposal had the support of the U.S. and the European Union, who fear Iran could use a program to produce nuclear weapons.

Though Iran and Russia had appeared to be moving towards an agreement, it fell apart Sunday.

"The Russian proposal is not on our agenda any more," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.

There have also been questions about Iran's vast oil resources, and whether the nation would cut off the flow if it doesn't get its way on the nuclear issue.

Contradicting earlier statements by the government, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran plans to continue providing oil to Asia, and will not use it as a bargaining chip in international relations.

One day earlier Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi said the opposite, warning Iran would consider doing just that if the U.N. Security Council placed sanctions on Iran.

Iran's oil resources are formidable. It is just behind Saudi Arabia as the second largest producer among the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and has some control over the Straits of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil coming out of the Persian Gulf.

The Security Council – which has the power to impose sanctions -- has been watching the situation closely, and looking at ways to force Iran to be more transparent about its nuclear ambitions.

The five permanent members of the council – Russia, China, Britain, France and the U.S., have also demanded Iran abandon its plan to enrich uranium.

Earlier, Iran said it was willing to wait on the Security Council before it started large-scale uranium enrichment efforts. But currently, Iran only has an experimental research program, and large scale enrichment is at least months away from being a reality.

Iran claims it only wants to enrich uranium at low levels, for use as fuel in a nuclear reactor to generate electricity.

Uranium enriched at higher levels can be used in nuclear weapons, and Western nations fear allowing Iran to produce low level enriched uranium would open the door to a nuclear weapons program.

Iran had put its research-level uranium enrichment efforts on hold two years ago, but restarted the program last month.

Last week the country volunteered to suspend large-scale enrichment if the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency would grant permission to continue the research-level enrichment work.

The offer was ignored by the U.S. and its Western allies, who argued that it is time the Security Council deal with the issue.

Iran warned recently the nation may revisit its nuclear policy if its right to produce nuclear fuel isn't respected.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei released a report recently that said Iran was testing tools used to enrich uranium and was taking steps towards using the technology.