"Within the U.N. Security Council they may be beginning to prepare public opinion for a dangerous turn of events (on Iraq)", the agency quoted Ivanov as saying.
"There are all the signs that the Americans have become more active," he said.
Russia has spoken out against any U.S. military action against Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves and has traditionally been close to Moscow.
Speculation has mounted recently that the United States is planning to invade Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, whose government is deemed by Washington to be part of an "axis of evil" seeking weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. and British jets have patrolled no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq since they were set up by Western powers after the 1991 Gulf War.
Baghdad does not recognise the zones, which the West says were imposed after the war to protect a Kurdish enclave in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from possible attacks by Iraqi government forces.
And U.N.-Iraqi talks have failed to produce an agreement on the return of weapons inspectors, who came after the 1991 Gulf War but left Iraq in 1998 on the eve of a U.S.-British bombing campaign to punish Baghdad for not cooperating with inspections.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov is currently on a tour of Middle East states to discuss Iraq and the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
"The political-diplomatic potential for resolving the Iraq situation is far from being exhausted," Ivanov said.
He said it should aim to ensure Iraq rids itself of weapons of mass destruction and at the same time offer Baghdad the prospect of an end to crippling sanctions.
"It is very important that Iraq in the very near future, accepts the return of international inspectors, who could....confirm the declarations of the Iraqi leadership that they have no weapons of mass destruction and no programme to create such weapons," Ivanov added.
