IAEA head: No new Iranian offer

2010-02-06 22:08

Munich - UN atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano said on Saturday that Iran's foreign minister made no new proposals to him on a possible nuclear fuel deal during a meeting in Germany.

"There was not a new proposal. We exchanged views," Amano told reporters after meeting Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of a security forum in Munich.

"I didn't receive the counter-proposal."

Asked if he was confident of a breakthrough on a deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head said: "I am not providing my perspective. Dialogue is continuing and should be accelerated, that is the point."

"Our meeting covered a variety of areas. That included of course in Iran and the Tehran research reactor.

"We had a very interesting discussion, and on my part I can currently say that dialogue is continuing and should be accelerated."

Tehran appeared to reject last October a deal proposed by the IAEA for Iran to export low-enriched uranium (LEU) to France and Russia to be further purified into fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly said on Tuesday however that he would have "no problem" sending some LEU abroad, although he gave no details on how a possible deal might look.

EU and US officials, wearied by years of fruitless talks to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and ease concerns about its atomic ambitions, suspect the move is brinkmanship to avert a fourth round of sanctions.
 

- AFP