Iran offers to swap 400 kilos of LEU on Kish for atomic fuel

Iran's foreign minister yesterday proposed that Tehran swap 400 kilos of low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel in an exchange on a Gulf island as the first phase of a deal with world powers.

Any new sanctions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme "will have no impact," Manouchehr Mottaki also said at a security conference in Bahrain.

"We are prepared to take 400 kilos of 3.5 per cent enriched uranium to the island of Kish and exchange it" for the equivalent in 20 per cent enriched uranium, he said.

He told the opening session of the conference in Manama that Iran agreed "in principle" to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) proposal to swap 1,200 kilos of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel.

The 400-kilo exchange on Iran's southern Gulf island, a free trade zone, could be an initial step in a process that would take several years, Mottaki told a later news conference.

The Islamic republic's foreign minister said the process could begin "right away" if the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany agreed to the offer.

But the IAEA has already ruled out a swap taking place inside Iran.