TEHRAN Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky has warned that the West is seen trying to engage Iran and Russia in the regional disputes to undermine them, the daily **** Abrar**** said Monday.

"Iran and Russia should preserve their cooperation to block the eastward expansion of NATO forces," Zhirinovsky, vice speaker of the Russian State Duma told the daily Thursday. He arrived here Tuesday night for a two-day state visit when he called on Iran to sign a friendship accord with Russia to halt the eastward expansion of NATO in the region.

He said Iran is a key country for Russia and called for expansion of Tehran-Moscow security cooperation.

Referring to an upcoming two-day state visit to Moscow of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, scheduled for March 19, he said, "Russia should regain the opportunities it has lost over the past years for following the West."

Khatami and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are likely to reach an interim agreement on how to divide the oil-rich Caspian Sea among the five littoral states.

Zhirinovsky, leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party said that the agreements signed last December between Iranian and Russian defense ministers in Tehran on broad military cooperation should be put into effect.

He said "only with the cooperation of Iran, can Russia defend its economic interests in the southern region."

Iran and Russia declared last December that a 1995 Russia-U.S. deal that prevented Moscow from selling conventional arms to Iran was effectively dead.

"It was agreed that a new phase of military and technical cooperation would begin between the two sides," visiting Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev told journalists at a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani.

The United States immediately reacted to Sergeyev's visit by saying it had serious concerns on Russia's plan to sell arms to Iran as they would pose a threat to its interests in the Middle East.

Last week, Zhirinovsky said that former Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin should be prosecuted for signing a secret five-year agreement with the then U.S. vice president Al Gore in 1995 which restricts arms sales to Iran.

(IRNA)