Iran's President Ahmadinejad says Iran ready for nuclear talks, claims West gave in

(AP) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran was ready to discuss "mutual concerns" over his country's nuclear program, but he refused to first suspend uranium enrichment.

His comments came a day after world powers backed off a demand that Iran commit to a prolonged moratorium on uranium enrichment, asking only for a suspension during talks on its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad did not say whether he accepted the proposal, part of a package of incentives in exchange for Iran suspending enrichment.

Meanwhile, a report by the U.N. nuclear agency made available to The Associated Press on Thursday said Iran has slowed its nuclear enrichment work over the past month but continues experimenting with the technology that world powers fear might be misused to make nuclear arms.

The confidential report circulated among the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35 member nations also indicated that nuclear inspectors have made little progress on clearing up other worrying aspects of Tehran's past nuclear activity.

Specifically, the three-page report said Iran still had declined to answer requests to clarify Ahmadinejad's statements that his country had experimented with advanced centrifuges that speed up enrichment _ a process that can produce fuel for electricity-generating reactors or, if sufficiently processed, the fissile core for a warhead.

A senior U.N. official familiar with the report, speaking on condition of anonymity because the material was confidential, said it contained nothing that significantly changed concerns about Iran's nuclear ambitions since the last IAEA report in April.

Last week, the United States agreed to join France, Britain and Germany in talks with Iran. If the talks occur, it would be the first major public negotiations between Washington and Tehran in more than 25 years.

However, Ahmadinejad insisted Iran would never give up its right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to produce nuclear fuel.

"On behalf of the Iranian nation, I'm announcing that the Iranian nation will never hold negotiations about its definite rights with anybody, but we are for talks about mutual concerns to resolve misunderstandings in the international arena," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people in Qazvin, west of the capital, Tehran.

"Negotiations should be held in a fair atmosphere and on the basis of equality. If they think they can threaten and hold a stick over Iran's head and offer negotiations at the same time, they should know the Iranian nation will definitely reject such an atmosphere."

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has said the incentives package included both "positive steps" and "ambiguities that need to be cleared up." Tehran has said it will announce its position after carefully studying the package.

"International monopolists have been defeated in the face of your resistance and solidarity, and have been forced to acknowledge your dignity and greatness," Ahmadinejad told the crowd, referring to the United States and its allies.

The United States and Europe suspect Iran's nuclear program is intended to produce weapons. Iran insists it is intended only to produce power, arguing it needs enrichment technology to produce fuel for atomic reactors that would generate electricity.

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Associated Press reporter George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.