Iran invites China to visit disputed nuclear sites

Iran invited China on Monday to send experts to see its nuclear facilities, the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in Beijing, in a fresh effort to persuade the world that its atomic activities should not attract sanctions.

Speaking in English, Salehi also told an audience of researchers and diplomats that China could trust Iran as a stable supplier of oil to fuel its rapidly growing economy.

The Iranian foreign minister's visit comes as Western governments continue to press his country over its disputed nuclear ambitions, highlighting China's importance as an economic and diplomatic buffer for Tehran.

"We said we are ready to receive experts from China, nuclear experts, to come and visit our nuclear installations in Iran," Salehi said, describing his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

"Rarely any country in the world opens up its nuclear facilities and institutes to the outside world, but since we are certain of the peacefulness of our nuclear activity, we have extended this invitation to a friendly country like China," said Salehi, who previously ran Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation.

Salehi appeared to renew something like the offer that Iran made in January to open its nuclear sites to envoys from Russia, China, the European Union and other governments. [ID:nLDE70C17R]

None of the four Western powers seeking to resolve the long-running Iran nuclear dispute -- the United States, Britain, Germany and France -- received invitations that time.

But Salehi said all members of the "P5 plus 1" negotiating group -- China, Russia, the United States, France, Britain and Germany -- could take up this latest offer.

"We extend the same invitation to the five plus one, if they want to come and see," he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on Salehi's offer. Foreign Minister Yang told Salehi that China wanted to "constantly advance bilateral relations", the official Xinhua news agency reported.

But in January, China did not take up Tehran's offer, and it would be unlikely to break ranks with the other big powers this time.

BIG OIL PURCHASER

China is nonetheless a big purchaser of oil from Iran, which has been shunned by Western powers who say Tehran is seeking to develop the means to make nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, and China has repeatedly urged the Western powers to be more flexible in negotiations.

Salehi stressed Iran's importance as an oil supplier in his comments at the China Institute of International Studies, a government-run think tank.

"It's probably one of the few -- I'm not saying the only -- reliable sources of energy that China can depend on, so looking from this perspective, China and Iran they need each other," he said, adding that his government did not come "under the influence" of other world powers.

The United States has lobbied China to turn more to Saudi Arabia and other more pro-Western states for its oil imports.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Tehran for refusing to freeze its uranium enrichment programme.

China has back those U.N. sanctions, but used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to resist demands for more expansive penalties that would cover oil and other major economic ties with Iran.

Trade between Iran and China grew to $29.4 billion in 2010, a rise of 38.5 percent on the previous year, reflecting the oil trade and growing Chinese exports to Iran.

Salehi said that trade could grow to $50 billion "in the next few years".

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/iran-china-idUSL3E7GN0AG20110523