Lavrov to join Iran nuclear talks on Saturday: diplomats

GENEVA (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to join talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program in Geneva on Saturday, diplomatic sources said, in a further sign of headway towards an interim deal between Tehran and world powers. "Lavrov is coming tomorrow," a diplomatic source who spoke on condition of not being identified told Reuters. Itar-Tass news agency cited an unidentified source as saying: "We hope that talks with (Lavrov's) participation can lead to positive results." The negotiations began on Thursday and were joined by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany on Friday. Russia, which built Iran's first nuclear power plant and sells Iran weapons, has in the past been more positive than the West about Iran's attitude toward the negotiations and less suspicious that it could be seeking nuclear weapons capability. Moscow backed four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran since 2006, after working with China to water them down, but has said it would not support tougher penalties and vocally opposed additional Western sanctions against Tehran, calling them counter-productive. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; editing by Mark Heinrich)