Iran Given Final Nuke Chance

Giving Iran one last chance to avoid the threat of U.N. sanctions, Britain, France and Germany will offer nuclear fuel and economic incentives at a meeting Thursday in return for assurances the Tehran regime will suspend uranium enrichment, diplomats said.

The offer came as Iran announced Wednesday it has a compromise proposal to end the standoff over its nuclear program. But Iran insisted anew on its right to enrich uranium, which the United States contends is part of a covert attempt to build an atomic weapon.

Iran's vow to continue the practice in a program it insists is geared purely toward generating electricity threatened to deal a setback to the European negotiators, who had hoped the incentives would get it to stop.

Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh did not give details of the compromise, saying in Tehran only that it would not compromise what it considers its right to enrich uranium and had been submitted to the Europeans "for their reaction."

"We expect that our legitimate rights be recognized and that Iran not be deprived of nuclear technology," President Mohammad Khatami told reporters Wednesday in Tehran. "The main problem is that they say, `You should ignore your rights,' and that we would never do."

In a private meeting with Iranian officials in Vienna, senior British, French and German officials planned to try to persuade Iran on Thursday to avoid a showdown next month with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

The incentives being offered to Iran included the possibility of buying nuclear fuel from the West, along with the promise of lucrative trade, the officials said. They did not confirm reports that a light-water nuclear research reactor was part of the package.

"We will have to see the offer. We have not seen anything yet," an Iranian official told The Associated Press. "And then we will have to take it to our capital. We really have to wait and see."

On Nov. 25, the Vienna-based IAEA's 35-nation board of governors will deliver a fresh assessment of Iran's cooperation — or lack of it — with the nuclear watchdog agency. The United States is pressing to report Iran's noncompliance to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

The foreign ministers of Britain and Germany this week urged Iran to indefinitely suspend its nuclear program. Iran has resumed testing, assembling and making centrifuges used to enrich uranium, heightening U.S. concerns that its sole purpose is to build a bomb.

But the three European powers are holding out hope that a diplomatic confrontation — and the looming threat of punishing sanctions — can be avoided if Tehran agrees to give up enriching uranium in exchange for peaceful nuclear technology.

If Iran does not accept the incentives, suspend enrichment and agree to IAEA verification that it has done so, the three likely would back the U.S. push to report Tehran's defiance to the Security Council, the diplomats said.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the nuclear agency was not directly involved in the talks, but that agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei "absolutely" welcomed the initiative.

"Mr. ElBaradei has been calling on the Iranians to fully suspend" uranium enrichment, Fleming said. "He's been supporting dialogue as a way forward in Iran, coupled with a continuation of an intensive inspection process. Any constructive dialogue is welcomed."

A Western diplomat familiar with the IAEA's dealings with Iran called the possible promise of a light-water nuclear reactor particularly intriguing, saying it was the first time that something so specific and potentially appealing to the Iranians was on offer.

Experts say Iran has been building a heavy-water reactor, which would use plutonium that also could be used in a nuclear weapon. A light-water research reactor, by contrast, uses a lower grade of plutonium.

Aghazadeh made it clear Wednesday that Iran would not forfeit its right to enrich uranium to generate power. Enrichment also can be used to produce atomic weapons.

"We have some very important principles. These principles can't be altered. Nuclear technology has become a local technology now," he said.

Khatami said his government was prepared to negotiate ways of assuring the world that Iran's nuclear program would not be used to make nuclear bombs.

"We don't want anything against the law," Khatami said, pledging to cooperate with the IAEA and "assure that our activities won't be diverted toward weapons."