Officials push negotiators to allow nuclear fuel

The United States wants Iran to be taken before the U.N. Security Council.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Sunday that a meeting with European negotiators should include a guarantee that its nuclear fuel cycle remain in Iran, seemingly rejecting a proposal to move the process to Russia to prevent the production of weapons-grade uranium.
Diplomats in Vienna said this month that senior French, British and German officials would make a last-ditch effort to convince Tehran to accept a compromise on its nuclear program. Iran wants an unfettered nuclear program while the United States wants Iran to be hauled before the U.N. Security Council for violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"In our view the agenda is clear," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said. "It should contain a guarantee for realizing the nuclear fuel cycle inside Iran."
Under the compromise proposal, Iran would continue its program, but uranium enrichment would be moved to Russia to ensure it cannot be secretly used for weapons.
Further talks
State-run television reported Sunday that the French, British and German ambassadors had sent Iran's top nuclear negotiator a letter saying they were prepared to resume nuclear talks in December.
No further details were provided on the letter's contents but any European-Iranian talks are expected to consider the Russian proposal, which has been touted as the offer most likely to resolve the nuclear dispute with the international community.
"Any proposal that contains producing nuclear fuel inside Iran will be supported by Iran," Asefi said. "If Europe sets the date for negotiations with the above specifications then it will begin."
Asefi said Iran had not heard from Russia about the enrichment plan.
Iran denies U.S. claims about its nuclear weapon ambitions and says its program is aimed at generating electricity. It insists that it has the right to a full program including the enrichment of nuclear fuel.
The International Atomic Energy Agency met Thursday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions after the U.S. and Europe accused Iran of having documents that show how to produce parts of nuclear warheads.
Iran has temporarily halted its enrichment program but negotiations with Britain, France and Germany broke off in August after Tehran resumed the conversion of raw uranium into a gas used in enrichment. Iran has also rejected European calls to halt work at its uranium-conversion facility near Isfahan in central Iran.