Iran rules out suspending nuclear activities

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has said there was no reason to suspend its nuclear activities, maintaining a tough line despite talks with the European Union aimed at persuading Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.

"Iran does not see any reason to suspend nuclear activities," state television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying Friday, a day after another key round of talks between Iran and the European Union ended in Berlin.

Mottaki's comments appeared to refer to uranium enrichment, a sensitive nuclear process that the West wants Iran to suspend as proof that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

A suspension at least of temporary nature is a key demand of the European Union and United States. Enriched uranium can be used both to make nuclear fuel and, in highly enriched form, the explosive core of an atomic bomb.

But Mottaki said Western countries "have found out that threatening language and a referral to the United Nations Security Council is not efficient and there is no way for them now but to negotiate."

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful energy needs, vehemently rejecting US allegations that it is seeking to manufacture nuclear weapons.

Washington is leading a push for UN sanctions against Iran if it fails to halt uranium enrichment and agree a deal proposed by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany that offers Tehran incentives and negotiations.

Mottaki's comments represented Tehran's most explicit signal yet since the talks between its top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana that it does not intend to suspend enrichment.

The talks that ended Thursday in Berlin failed to produce an accord but both men said they were positive and constructive, with Solana hailing what he described as progress.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had vowed in a speech Thursday that Iran "would not bend" over its nuclear programme and also questioned the value of suspending uranium enrichment.

There have been conflicting reports over whether Iran made any offer in the EU talks to suspend enrichment for a limited time, with some Iranian officials denying assertions by EU diplomats that it had done so.

The Washington Times reported Tuesday that Iran was close to agreeing a secret deal that would have it suspend uranium enrichment for 90 days in order for additional talks to take place.

"Why are they insisting that we stop it (enrichment) even for one day? Why should we pretend to stop it even for one day?" Ahmadinejad asked the cheering crowd in his speech.

The United States, which has backed the EU talks while also showing increasing impatience with Tehran, warned that time was running out for Solana to convince Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed that a new deadline for Iran to halt enrichment agreed last week among the permanent five UN Security Council members and Germany was looming and would not be changed.

"The timeline that was agreed in New York stays, and we are getting short now in terms of that time." The deadline has not been officially revealed but European diplomats involved in the negotiations said it was sometime next week.

Iran defied a previous UN deadline of August 31 to halt uranium enrichment but was given more time to see if the talks between Larijani and Solana were successful.

Meanwhile, Mottaki was also quoted as vowing that should the standoff intensify "Iran will not use oil as a political weapon and there is no need to do so either."