* Jan imports from Iran 490,727 bpd, -14 pct m/m, -5 pct y/y * Imports from Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia rose BEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - China's January crude oil imports from Iran fell 14 percent from December on a daily basis, customs data showed on Tuesday, as top refiner Sinopec Corp slashed imports from Iran in a dispute over payments and prices. Sinopec is Iran's biggest oil buyer and imports nearly all the crude that the Islamic Republic ships to China. The state-run refiner cut Iranian oil imports by around 285,000 barrels per day (bpd), just over half its average daily purchases, industry sources told Reuters, as the two haggled over terms against a backdrop of rising international pressure on Tehran. Sinopec's import cuts were for cargoes due to be loaded in Iran in January, so the fall will show more prominently in February customs data when much of the January-loaded crude would have reached China. China imported 490,727 barrels of Iranian crude per day in January, down 82,000 bpd from the 572,761 bpd in December, the customs data showed. Imports fell 5 percent on the year. Sinopec's trading arm, Unipec, has since struck a deal with Iran for 2012 supplies and will buy less than the 260,000 bpd it bought in 2011, trade sources said on Monday. Sinopec receives Iranian crude via Unipec and also via state oil trader Zhuhai Zhenrong. Zhenrong will continue to import 240,000 bpd of oil from Iran, as it did last year. Sinopec had ordered both Zhenrong and Unipec to cut imports from Iran as it put pressure on Iranian negotiators for better terms for the annual deal. China bought more crude from Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in January than in December, more than offsetting the loss of imports from Iran. Imports from Saudi Arabia, the only big oil producer with significant amounts of spare capacity, climbed just 10,000 bpd to 1.13 million bpd in January, up from 1.12 million bpd in December. That was less than expected as Saudi Arabia boosted its supply by around 360,000 bpd in December from October last year, and industry sources have said much of that increase was destined for China. Customs data showed crude imports from Russia were 581,857 bpd in January, 22 percent higher than 475,460 bpd in December and more than triple a year earlier. January crude imports from Iraq were 375,318 bpd, up 19 percent from the 316,715 bpd imported in December. With Chinese buyers and the National Iranian Oil Company having wrapped up annual term negotiations, industry sources expect imports from Iran to start rising again toward new contract volumes as soon as March. China, the world's second-largest oil consumer, is Iran's largest trading partner and biggest oil client that buys up to 20 percent of the Islamic Republic's total crude exports. Iran was China's No.3 supplier after the Saudi Arabia and Angola last year. (Reporting by Judy Hua and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Simon Webb)

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