Tehran plays for time

BRUSSELS - The European Union will pressure Iran at talks in Brussels overnight to reply quickly to a package of incentives from major powers designed to end a standoff over its nuclear programme, but Tehran says it needs more time.

Diplomats said divisions in the United Nations Security Council over what action to take on Iran meant there was little chance of it rushing to respond either at the Brussels meeting or before a July 15 summit of the G8 leading industrialised nations in Russia.

"Iran holds all the cards," said one European diplomat with a G8 country, adding that Russia and China were likely to oppose Security Council sanctions as long they thought Tehran was seriously considering the offer.

Iran says it sees ambiguities in the June 6 offer by Germany and the five permanent, veto-wielding Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

The major powers offered a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor with a guaranteed fuel supply, economic benefits and support for the idea of a regional security framework if Iran halted uranium enrichment.

But so far Tehran has said it will not give its answer before August 22.

"Allocating two months to respond to the proposed package is not a long time," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said as Iranian officials travelled to meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "The date of Iran's response is not changeable."

The EU says it is waiting for Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, to give the definitive reply.

"We hope and clearly see the objective of the talks tomorrow is to create the conditions for the start of negotiations," Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, said. "The more clarity we get, the better feedback for the G8."

- REUTERS