Iran to consider nuclear proposals

TEHRAN - Iran will consider a set of incentives from six top world powers urging it to stop making atomic fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on today.

However, he insisted the crux of the package was still unacceptable.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will soon deliver the proposals agreed by US, Russian, British, German, French and Chinese foreign ministers in Vienna on Thursday.

"We will not pass judgement on the proposals hastily," he told a crowd at the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, saying the package would receive due consideration.

"But using nuclear technology for production of nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes is part of our legal and certain rights and we will never negotiate on that with anybody," he added.

It is unclear what the package of incentives includes and how they could break Iran's insistence on producing its own nuclear fuel. Diplomats have been working on packages for Iran ranging from offering reactors to giving security guarantees.

Western countries say Iran can only prove it is building nuclear power stations and not bombs by giving up its atomic fuel work. Tehran has always rebuffed these demands.

Ahmadinejad said he had spoken with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who had asked him not dismiss the nuclear proposals out of hand.

"We will not rush and will assess the proposals," Ahmadinejad assured the crowd many of whom had come on a pilgrimage for the anniversary of Khomeini's death on Sunday.

- REUTERS