IRAN: Iran says it wants to resume nuclear negotiations with the EU and could even talk to Washington if its arch foe "changed behaviour". Tehran has also said it is willing to negotiate on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges it uses for research, but stresses it will not stop running the devices entirely, as the UN Security Council has called for.
The mixture of conciliatory and defiant statements was unlikely to appease the United States and its allies, who fear Iran could use even limited enrichment facilities to master the technology required to make atomic weapons.
Tehran says it seeks nuclear energy only for electricity.
UN Security Council powers and Germany will meet in Vienna tomorrow to finalise a package of incentives for Iran to halt enrichment along with penalties if it continues to defy international pressure, officials said yesterday.
In Malaysia yesterday, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran could resume dialogue with the US, after an official freeze of 26 years, provided Washington changed its behaviour. He did not say what behaviour.
Iran has said previously Washington must stop seeking to topple its Islamic government.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU would welcome direct talks between the US and Iran, but it was for Washington and Tehran to decide.