Iran proposes big changes to draft UN atom deal

Iran proposed changes to a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal yesterday, Iranian media said, making demands that appeared to challenge the basis of the agreement with the United States, France and Russia.

The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had requested a reply by last Friday, said its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, had now received an "initial response" from Tehran.

"(ElBaradei) is engaged in consultations with the government of Iran as well as all relevant parties, with the hope that agreement on his proposal can be reached soon," the IAEA said in a statement. It gave no further details.

The Iranian pro-government daily Javan said in an unsourced report that Iran wanted shipments of low-enriched uranium (LEU) - for conversion abroad into fuel for a Tehran research reactor - to take place in stages, not in a single consignment.

It also wanted simultaneous imports of higher-enriched fuel from other countries for the same plant.

The conditions were likely non-starters for Western powers, which suspect the Islamic Republic covertly seeks nuclear arms capability. Tehran says its programme is only for electricity.

"If the Iranian position is as described, it gets the IAEA nowhere," a western diplomat in Vienna said. "They are undercutting Mohamed ElBaradei, who is seeking to help them demonstrate the peaceful intent of their nuclear programme."

Under Mr ElBaradei's plan, Tehran would transfer about 75 per cent of its known 1.5 tonnes of LEU in one shipment to Russia by the end of this year for further enrichment. The material would then go to France to be converted into fuel plates.

These would be returned to Tehran to power the US-built reactor, which produces radio-isotopes for cancer treatment.

The US role would be to upgrade safety and instrumentation at the plant, Iranian officials said.

France reacted cautiously to the reports of Tehran's latest position, saying it wanted to see Iran "respond clearly and positively to the proposal submitted by the IAEA, which is fully supported by France, the United States and Russia". Western powers were likely to rebuff Tehran's proposed amendments because their priority is to reduce the stockpile of Iranian LEU to ward off the danger that Iran might turn it into the highly enriched uranium needed for an atom bomb.