TEHRAN -- On Saturday, Iranian and Russian officials began talks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program behind closed doors in Tehran, the spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said later in the day.

The Russian delegation arrived in the Iranian capital in the early hours of Saturday morning.

“The Russian nuclear delegation began the first round of talks with Iranian officials in Tehran," Hossein Entezami told the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.

“The (Russian) delegation has come to Tehran to explain the Russian plan (to establish a joint Russian-Iranian consortium for uranium enrichment on Russian soil) and the expansion of bilateral nuclear cooperation.”

Entezami said the Russian delegation is headed by Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Valentin Sobolev. Experts from the SNSC, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and the Foreign Ministry are participating in the talks, he added.

"The two sides are going to discuss Russia's proposal, the scale of the project, and also enrichment on Iranian soil," he said. SNSC Secretary General Ali Larijani said on January 1, “We have to study the mechanism of the proposal and see where it has greater advantages for Iran.”

It could be a complementary project, he added.

Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant near the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr and supports Iran's drive to build more nuclear power stations in the future.

SNSC Deputy Secretary General Javad Vaeedi said late last year that agreeing to talks with Russia did not mean Iran had abandoned its drive to enrich uranium on its own soil.