Iran will talk to any country but Israel

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday Iran was ready to talk with any country except Israel but not under threat of force.

The comment came as Iran's foreign minister told European states not to repeat what he called the mistake of forcing an end to talks on Tehran's nuclear programme by demanding it stop uranium enrichment, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Ahmadinejad, in Nusa Dua on Indonesia's resort island of Bali to attend the Developing Eight (D-8) summit, told reporters Iran was "ready to hold dialogue with all countries of the world except for the Israeli regime."

The United States has said it would not rule out the use of force to stop what it considers to be an Iranian drive for nuclear weapons, but intends to solve its dispute by diplomacy.

Ahmadinejad also said Tehran would abide by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in co-operating with other countries.

Tomorrow, European ministers prepare to discuss a new proposal in Brussels to end the long-running standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.

The plan includes incentives for co-operation in ending uranium enrichment but also a threat of targeted sanctions if Tehran was seen as obstructionist.

The United States and western allies suspect Iran's declared civilian nuclear energy programme is a smokescreen for a nuclear weapons programme.

Iran accuses the three main European negotiators - Britain, Germany and France - of unilaterally cancelling a round of talks on Iran's nuclear row last August shortly after Iran resumed its nuclear research and development activities.

"The European countries should not repeat the 'August experience'," IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying at the D-8 meeting.

Mottaki did not elaborate further, but said Iran would co-operate fully with European states if they accepted Iran's right to have peaceful nuclear technology and enter a dialogue based on that.

The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution by Britain and France and backed by the United States that demands Iran suspend uranium enrichment. But Russia and China oppose parts of the text.

US State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez, reacting to Ahmadinejad's comments in Indonesia, said Iran must suspend uranium enrichment, co-operate with the IAEA, and return to good-faith negotiations.