TEHRAN, Iran - Iran hinted Tuesday that its response to a Western incentive package aimed at persuading it to roll back its nuclear program would include constructive ideas that it hopes will open the way for negotiations.

Tehran reiterated Tuesday its intention to meet its self-imposed deadline later Tuesday to reply to the package. The official Iranian News Agency said it would deliver its response at 4 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. EDT).

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during the South Africa-Iran Joint Bilateral Commission at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, Aug. 21, 2006. Iran has finished considering an offer to settle its international nuclear dispute, Mottaki said in Pretoria on Monday. [AP]

Tehran was expected to give its answer on the package to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who delivered it in June.

A top Iranian nuclear official said Tehran's response will provide "an exceptional opportunity" for a return to the negotiating table for a compromise.

"Iran's response to the package is a comprehensive reply that can open the way for resumption of talks for a final agreement," Mohammed Saeedi, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in comments published Tuesday.

Even so, Iran on Monday twice showed its determination to push ahead with its nuclear program, which continues under the possible threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security council if it does not halt uranium enrichment by Aug. 31.

It turned away International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from an underground site meant to shelter its uranium enrichment program from attack and its top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that Tehran will continue to pursue its nuclear activities.

Iran has rejected the resolution passed by the council last month as "illegal," saying a compromise can only emerge from talks.

Likewise, Saeedi's optimistic words Tuesday were tempered by his assessment of the proposed packaged as containing "serious ambiguities" that need to be clarified in talks.

The package does not mention the part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that affirms signatories' right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, Saeedi said.

"One ambiguity is the deliberate failure to mention Article 4 of the NPT in the package. Instead, it has repeatedly referred to other parts of the treaty that are mainly deterrent. Why Article 4 has not been mentioned?" Saeedi asked.

Iran promised Sunday to offer a "multifaceted response" to the package of incentives, proposed in June by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

The council's July 31 resolution came in response to Tehran's delay in replying to the proposal.

The United States and some of its Western allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied the charges saying its nuclear program is merely aimed at generating electricity, not bombs.

The Islamic republic has repeatedly said it will never give up its right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel, but has indicated it may temporarily suspend large-scale activities to ease tensions.