World powers set to discuss Iran nuclear offer

By Madeline Chambers

LONDON (Reuters) – World powers meet in London on Wednesday
to discuss a package of incentives and threats drafted by
European countries aimed at defusing a crisis over Iran’s
nuclear program.

Senior officials from UN Security Council permanent members
China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain, plus
Germany, will try to narrow divisions over how to proceed to
persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment work.

The head of Russia’s atomic energy agency said in
Washington he hoped for a “major breakthrough” on the nuclear
row at the London meeting but a U.S. official said that more
talks may be needed to reach agreement.

“I hope that this proposal would be a major breakthrough in
this issue,” Sergei Kiryenko said after talks with Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and other senior U.S. officials.

But he gave few details and it was unclear whether serious
differences had been resolved between Washington and Moscow
over U.S. demands that Iran face sanctions, resisted by Russia,
if it continues to defy the international community.

The official, who spoke anonymously, said he did not expect
“full closure” at the London meeting and that there likely
would be “more talks next week.”

Washington and some western nations suspect Iran’s nuclear
program is a cover for efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

But the Islamic Republic says it is developing nuclear
technology for civilian power generation. It has said it will
not stop its nuclear work, even for incentives.

President Bush said countries had to work together to
encourage Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

“Obviously we’d like to solve this issue peacefully and
diplomatically, and the more the Iranians refuse to negotiate
in good faith the more countries are beginning to realize that
we must continue to work together,” Bush said.

But Bush said Iran had so far not shown signs of agreeing.

“We’re spending a lot of time working with our Russian
friends in particular to make it clear to them that Iran is
showing no good faith,” he said.

TARGETED SANCTIONS

British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett told parliament:
“It is the intention to encourage Iran to see the nature of the
choice that lies before it.”

The package is likely to include an offer of a light-water
reactor and an assured supply from abroad of fuel for civilian
atomic plants so Iran would not have to enrich uranium itself.

Enriched uranium can be used as a nuclear fuel, but is also
a key component of atomic weapons.

The package will also warn of possible sanctions if Iran,
the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer, refuses the offer.

Diplomats say they would first discuss targeted sanctions,
such as visa bans on officials involved in the nuclear program,
before seeking ways of curtailing trade deals.

Some EU officials, analysts and the UN’s nuclear watchdog
– the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — want
Washington to engage with Iran.

They believe the only way to entice Iran back to
negotiations and getting it to stop its nuclear work would be a
U.S. pledge it would not try to topple the Tehran government.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will hold talks with Rice.

“ElBaradei will reiterate to the Americans that Washington
needs to engage Iran directly,” said a senior Vienna diplomat
familiar with his thinking and IAEA operations in Iran.

The Washington Post, citing U.S. officials, Iranian
analysts and foreign diplomats, said on Tuesday Iran is making
explicit requests for direct talks with the United States.

Top Iranian officials have asked intermediaries, including
ElBaradei, Indonesia, Kuwait and UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, to make clear to Washington their appetite for direct
talks on its nuclear program, it said.

State Department spokeswoman, Nancy Beck, said there would
be no immediate comment on the report.