EU

Tehran to talk with EU before IAEA meeting

(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-02 17:28

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Thursday that Tehran will hold nuclear talks with the European Union prior to a meeting with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Ali Larijani, who headed the Iranian delegation at talks in Moscow on Russia's offer to host uranium enrichment, said that Iran will conduct talks with Britain, France and Germany, which have represented the EU in the past in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors is to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue on Monday, and it could start a process leading to punishment by the U.N. Security Council, which has the authority to impose sanctions on Iran.

It remains unclear if veto-wielding council members Russia and China, which have close economic and political ties with Iran, will back sanctions.

Meanwhile, Larijani said no date has been set for the next round of talks with Russia on Moscow's offer to host the Iranian enrichment program.

Moscow's offer to have Iran's uranium enrichment program transferred to Russia has been backed by the United States and the European Union as a way to provide more assurances that Tehran's atomic program could not be diverted to build weapons.

Russia has urged Iran to freeze its domestic uranium enrichment program as a condition for its offer, but Iran has said it won't do that.

Iran insists its nuclear program is only to generate power, but many in the West fear Iran is aiming to develop atomic weapons. Enrichment is a process that can produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a weapon.