TEHERAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to US President George W. Bush proposing "new solutions" to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian leader to an American president in 27 years.

The letter was sent via the Swiss Embassy in Teheran which has a US interests section, government spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham told a press conference yesterday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (front row C) sits with commanders from the Basij Militia in Tehran May 7, 2006. The Iranian parliament said in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Sunday to force the government to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the United States continued pressuring Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. [Reuters]

In the letter, Ahmadinejad proposes "new solutions for getting out of international problems and current fragile situation of the world," Elham said.

Elham said the nuclear dispute was one of a number of topics broached in the letter. He declined to say whether the letter included an offer of direct talks with the United States.

Washington is leading Western efforts to pass a UN Security Council motion censuring Iran for refusing to cease enrichment of uranium.

Iran has been referred to the UN Security Council over fears it is building nuclear arms, a charge Iran denies. Washington says it would prefer a diplomatic solution to the crisis but warns sanctions and military strikes are options.

China and Russia have repeatedly stressed the need for an amicable settlement, saying that sanctions would help no one.

Oil fell below US$70 a barrel yesterday on hopes that tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions would now ease.

Past Iranian public messages to the United States have been sharp rebukes, accusing Washington of bullying over Teheran's nuclear programme and of imperialistic intervention in Iraq.

The United States and Iran severed diplomatic ties in 1980, in a crisis after radical students stormed the US embassy in Teheran and seized 52 Americans and held them for 444 days.

On Sunday, Ahmadinejad renewed Iran's threat to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions over its nuclear programme.

In Ankara, Turkey, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said yesterday that the Iranian president's letter to President Bush could create a "new diplomatic opening."

(China Daily 05/09/2006 page1)