Iran 'interested' in Russian plan

Iran again threatened yesterday to start full-scale uranium enrichment if reported to the UN Security Council, while signalling interest in a Russian proposal aimed at calming its nuclear row with the West.

The council's five veto-wielding permanent members plus Germany plan to meet in London on Monday to try to resolve differences over whether to send Iran to the council at a crisis meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog on February 2, diplomats said.

They said Foreign Ministers of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany would seek a consensus before the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gathers in Vienna to weigh what to do about Iran.

The US and its European Union allies say it is time for the IAEA to turn Iran's nuclear dossier over to the Security Council. China and Russia have urged caution.

A senior US diplomat suggested a nuclear cooperation deal with India could collapse unless New Delhi votes against Iran next month at the IAEA. So far India has been non-committal.

If India failed to vote against Iran, "the effect on members of the US Congress with regard to the civil nuclear initiative will be devastating", the US ambassador to India, David Mulford, told the Press Trust of India news agency.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he doubted any decision on referral could be reached at the February 2 meeting.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country would immediately halt voluntary dealings with the IAEA, which include snap checks on its atomic sites, if sent to the council.

Iran, going beyond its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations, allows impromptu inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog.

Mr Mottaki urged the EU's Britain, France and Germany to renew talks they halted this month when Iran removed UN seals on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed nuclear fuel research.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said after talks in Moscow he was positive about the idea of setting up a joint venture with Russia to purify uranium on Russian soil.

He said the plan could be "perfected" during talks in Moscow scheduled for February 16 - two weeks after the IAEA board meeting.

The proposal aims to prevent Iran gaining technology that could be used for military purposes. Iran says it does not want atomic bombs, but has the right to enrich uranium at home. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw reiterated that the Russian proposal was welcome if it enabled Iran to receive nuclear fuel that was processed safely outside its borders.

"That may provide a solution," he told a news conference in Cyprus. "But what the world is also looking for is for Iran to stop the beginnings of running its centrifuges. That's essential if it is to avoid reference to the Security Council."

Mr Annan said it was encouraging to hear the Iranians say they were considering the Russian offer seriously. "It is a solution that the international community is ready to accept," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

He said he was not sure any decision on referring Iran to the Security Council could be taken before the IAEA board gets a report that the agency's chief Mohamed ElBaradei aims to deliver at the end of February for a regular board meeting in March.

Mr ElBaradei has already rejected Western pressure to provide a full report for the February 2 emergency meeting.

IAEA safeguards investigators led by deputy agency director general Olli Heinonen flew to Tehran on Tuesday to try to get Iran to reveal more about its past nuclear activities.

Mr Larijani, who begins a visit to China today, warned that referral would prompt Iran to begin large-scale enrichment.

"In those conditions, our activities will not be limited to scientific research. Then we will start industrial production."