World powers inch forward in Iran nuclear talks

LONDON - World powers meeting in London to discuss ways of limiting Iran's nuclear capability failed to reach consensus on their first day of talks.

Officials from UN Security Council permanent members China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus Germany, had met to try to narrow divisions over how to induce Tehran to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.

The US and some of its Western allies suspect Iran's professed bid for nuclear power for its economy is a cover for efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

The US State Department said there had been "great progress" at the talks, but that a deal "was not done yet".

As preparatory work continues in coming days, officials will propose that foreign ministers should meet soon to take final decisions, a spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said.

"This is a complex and sensitive diplomatic negotiation," he said, declining to be drawn on details of the talks.

Serious differences have persisted between Washington and Moscow over US demands that Iran face sanctions, resisted by Russia, if it continues to defy the international community.

Tehran has said it has a non-negotiable right to civilian atomic research under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows it enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

On Wednesday local time, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued to defy Western pressure, telling a rally broadcast live on state television: "Using nuclear energy is Iran's right."

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told Pakistan Television the United States could not afford to trigger "a new crisis" in the region.

But UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking during a visit to Vietnam, said he had appealed to Iran "not to reject anything out of hand" that might emerge from the London talks.

The final package is likely to include an offer of a light-water reactor and a supply from abroad of fuel for civilian atomic plants so Iran would not have to enrich uranium.

Enriched to a low level, uranium is used as nuclear power plant fuel. But if purified to a higher grade, uranium can set off the chain reaction that detonates atomic bombs.

- REUTERS