Iran sees problems in atomic offer

Iran yesterday gave its most negative assessment of proposals offered by six world powers that aim to persuade Tehran to give up sensitive atomic work yet said the key issue of uranium enrichment needed clarification.

The proposals, which include both incentives and penalties, are based on a demand that Iran stops enriching uranium, a process that can make fuel for power plants, as Tehran insists it is doing, or material for bombs, as the West contends.

Tehran has repeatedly rejected calls to stop the enrichment. "These proposals contain some positive points. At the same time there are problems and ambiguous points," chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in Cairo. Previously, he had not referred to "problems" but only to unspecified "ambiguities".

When asked later what the ambiguities were, he said: "For example, that which relates to the enrichment process in Iran. There must be clarification in a transparent way."

He was speaking through an Arabic translator. Before the proposal was delivered, Iranian officials insisted the country would not give up enrichment, usually described as a national right, though some officials had hinted Iran might negotiate over plans for industrial-scale enrichment.

Britain, France and Germany drew up the proposals that were approved by the United States, China and Russia and delivered to Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, on Tuesday.

Some details or early drafts have leaked from Western diplomats and other sources. They include offering Iran a light-water reactor and guaranteeing nuclear fuel supplies.

"This (offer) contains positive points, such as nuclear reactors for Iran," Larijani said. He said the offer also included a proposal for a regional stability dialogue in which Iran was ready to participate. Possible penalties are said to include travel bans on some Iranians, freezing assets and an embargo on arms sales to Iran and some Iranian exports, such as some hydrocarbons.

Larijani, who heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council that has been entrusted with handling nuclear talks, said no deadline had been set for Iran to accept the package.

"It was said that Iran was given a limited time period to agree... This is incorrect," he said.

US President George W. Bush has said Tehran has weeks rather than months to respond and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country holds the EU presidency, has said Iran has until the Group of Eight summit in mid-July.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Tehran that Iran would not be rushed and dismissed accusations by some Western critics that Iran was stalling.

"We have not been given a deadline... but that does not mean we are seeking to buy time," Hamid Reza Asefi said.

He also reflected the increasingly negative tone towards the proposals by saying some points in the package "should not exist" and said Tehran would respond with its own proposals.

When asked whether Iran would be willing to suspend enrichment during negotiations, as demanded, Asefi said: "We will not abandon our rights under any condition. Our rights are not negotiable. The initiative is in our hands."

Iran said in April it had enriched uranium in small quantities for the first time and, since then, officials have insisted they would not stop that work.