WORLD> Middle East
Iran indicates it has no plans to halt enrichment
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-06 10:38

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran indicated Saturday that it has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium, a day after Tehran sent the European Union a response to an international offer of incentives for halting enrichment.

Technicians prepare to wash the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant at the Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1200 Kms south of Tehran, in 2007. The US said Saturday that it would talk with allies before commenting on Tehran's response to a plan from six world powers offering Iran technology and negotiations if it suspends uranium enrichment. [Agencies]

The content of that response has not been made public and there was caution about the prospects of progress.

"It was not something that made us jump up and down for joy," said one European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential. "We are in a holding mode until we get a chance to look at it more closely."

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White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President Bush en route to a G-8 summit in Japan that the US administration was still evaluating Iran's response.

"We're going out to consult with our allies about what Iran's response means," Perino said. "We'll just have to see how this is received by others before we make a formal response."

A positive response could open the way to renewed negotiations that might help cool recent sharp exchanges between officials on both sides. In recent weeks the US and Iran have traded threats and warnings over possible American or Israeli military action.

But Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham insisted Tehran would not change the central part of its controversial program. Uranium enrichment can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a warhead. Iran insists its enrichment work is intended to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that would generate electricity.

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