Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will not attend today's meeting in Geneva on Iran's disputed nuclear programme despite the attendance there of most other top diplomats involved in the talks, his spokesman said.
"The minister has no such plans," Interfax quoted official foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich as saying.
Lukashevich did not explain Lavrov's decision to skip the crunch Geneva meeting despite growing expectations of an imminent announcement about a framework agreement between world powers and Iran.
Both US Secretary of State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius have confirmed their attendance at today's session.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also tweeted today that he was "heading to Geneva for Iran talks."
A source said that German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will also join today's discussion.
The Geneva negotiations involve Iran and the so called P5+1 group of the five permanent UN Security Council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United State and Germany.
Russia is represented at the talks by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
