Iran considers EU's 'last chance' nuclear offer

Iran has not agreed to an offer by the European Union to receive nuclear technology in exchange for abandoning its uranium enrichment programme, but it will consider the proposal, an Iranian official said yesterday.

"It is just at the initial stage. The matter has to be considered on both sides," Sirius Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation at a meeting with senior French, British and German officials, told reporters.

"What has been agreed is that we will continue the dialogue he said outside the French mission to the United Nations, adding that the EU trio had presented their offer in "more or less clear terms".

If Iran rejects the EU offer, diplomats say most European nations will back US demands that Tehran be reported to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in November.

Asked if Iran was afraid of being reported to the Security Council, Mr Naseri said only: "We are not threatening each other."

Diplomats said the EU's "big three" had the reluctant blessing of the United States in making the offer, despite Washington's belief that Iran was using talks with the EU to buy time to acquire the capability to build a nuclear bomb.

"At this point Iranian compliance doesn't seem likely... based on Iran's history and their current expressions and the things that they're saying and doing right now," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday.

Iran maintains its nuclear programme is only for power generation and that it will never give up uranium enrichment - a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or material for atom bombs.

The IAEA, the UN atomic watchdog body, has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for more than two years. It has uncovered many previously hidden activities that could be related to a weapons programme but has found no "smoking gun".

President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday if Iran was guaranteed the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, Tehran would "present everything necessary to prove that Iran will not produce an atomic bomb. But we will not give up our rights".

Influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reinforced the message yesterday as the talks were beginning, saying: "We have announced our stance repeatedly. It is irreversible."

Some diplomats say Iranian officials have never clearly explained why their oil-rich state needs nuclear energy or why they are so intent on producing nuclear fuel - years before any Iranian atomic power facilities would be in need of such fuel.