Iran lauds 'cooperation' but hedges on nuke deal

VIENNA -- Iran's president pledged Thursday to work with the West to resolve a standoff over its nuclear program even as his country reportedly balked at a U.S.-backed deal to limit its uranium enrichment and curb its ability to make a nuclear warhead.

A Western diplomat said Iran rejected a plan to export most of its enriched uranium, offering instead to enrich it to a higher level inside the country under U.N. supervision.

The disconnect between the words of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tehran's decision, as related by the diplomat, reflected the difficulties facing international negotiators trying to persuade Iran to give up enrichment.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, was dismissive after seeing the offer.

"It's the same old tricks," he said: "A back-and-forth for further talks."

Iran was considering a plan proposed last week by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei at talks involving Iran, the U.S., Russia and France. A negotiator said the draft would commit Iran to delivering 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia in one shipment for further enrichment and conversion into fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

Sending that amount in one batch would leave Tehran without enough material to make weapons-grade uranium should it decide to make a warhead. Experts say Iran would need at least a year to produce enough to make up for the exported material, giving the international community a window of opportunity to persuade the Islamic Republic to freeze its enrichment program.

According to the Western diplomat familiar with the reply, Iran was instead proposing to further enrich it inside Iran under IAEA supervision.

If it was enriched domestically to a higher level -- as the diplomat said it wants to -- that could speed up its ability to make weapons-grade uranium.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog gave few details aside from saying Iran had provided an "initial response" to the draft.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. needs "further clarification and I think it's also fair to say that we need a formal response from Iran."

On Thursday, the state-run newspaper Iran cited lawmakers as saying Tehran was seeking significant changes in the plan; sending the low-enriched uranium gradually rather than all in one shipment, each batch handed over only after Iran receives a delivery of reactor-ready fuel rods.

Other state media also have raised the prospect of a gradual handover, of shipping out a smaller amount of uranium than outlined in the U.N. plan -- or of not shipping any at all and buying what the country requires from abroad.

None of those approaches would be acceptable to the West because they all would leave Iran with enough material to produce a nuclear weapon.

The Tehran research reactor needs fuel enriched to just under 20 percent -- far from the 90 percent and above needed to make a nuclear weapon. Iran's stockpile is low-enriched uranium enriched to just above 3 percent, suitable only for nuclear fuel.

But the higher the level of enrichment, the easier it is to further enrich to weapons-grade. Thus, the proposal outlined by the diplomat -- further enrichment by Iran of its present stock -- is unlikely to be endorsed by the U.S. and its allies.

"They don't want the LEU taken out," said the diplomat, referring to low-enriched uranium. "They want to enrich it there (in Iran) under IAEA supervision."

The diplomat also suggested the Iranians were eager for further one-on-one talks with the U.S. after Washington this month broke with nearly three decades of policy of not negotiating formally and directly with Tehran.

"They want the U.S. at the table to talk about how (the Americans) might be able to provide physical support for their (research) reactor to ensure there are no accidents," said the diplomat.

In a possible allusion to the Iranian wish to draw in the Americans, Ahmadinejad insisted his country and the West were working more closely on nuclear cooperation than ever before.

"Today we reached a very important point," Ahmadinejad told a huge crowd in the northeastern shrine city of Mashhad. "Ground has been paved for nuclear cooperation."

But he again insisted his government "will not retreat even an iota" over Iran's right to pursue enrichment -- despite three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for its refusal to freeze the program.

Since its clandestine enrichment program was revealed seven years ago, Iran has amassed about 3,300 pounds of low-enriched uranium at its cavernous underground facility at Natanz -- Tehran's only known enrichment operation until it divulged late last month that it secretly was building another plant.

The plan as is would commit Iran to turn over more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms) of low-enriched uranium -- more than the commonly accepted amount needed to produce weapons-grade material.

Tehran insists it is enriching only to create fuel for a future nuclear reactor network and notes its activities at Natanz are being monitored by the IAEA.

But the amount it has produced is more than enough for a single warhead.

The U.S., its allies and independent experts assert that Tehran could reconfigure the thousands of centrifuges now churning out low-enriched uranium and expel the IAEA at any time, should it decide to "break out" from a peaceful program into one producing weapons-grade material.

The revelation of a second, previously clandestine plant under construction near the holy city of Qom has compounded international concerns.

Iran had signaled in recent days that it was unwilling to give up most of its enriched stockpile in a single shipment and would seek to re-negotiate terms worked out by ElBaradei.

The language of the IAEA statement reflected Tehran's determination to push for more talks.

Besides speaking of "an initial response from the Iranian authorities" -- suggesting that Iran was looking for further talks -- the statement also said ElBaradei expressed "hope that agreement can be reached soon" and was consulting with the four nations involved.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Brian Murphy in Dubai and Veronika Oleksyn in Vienna contributed to this report.