Germany, Turkey urge Iran to weigh up nuclear offer

ANKARA, June 2 (Reuters) The foreign ministers of Germany and Turkey today urged Iran to study carefully a proposal aimed at halting work that could produce nuclear weapons, saying it was in Tehran's own interests to avoid confrontation.

Germany is one of six major powers that met in Vienna yesterday to hammer out the proposal, which also includes a threat of UN Security Council sanctions if Iran refuses to cooperate. Turkey is the only NATO member state bordering Iran.

''A new opportunity is before us. We hope it will be assessed calmly. We urged the Iranian side to do so in our talks with them,'' Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a joint news conference with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Gul said he had urged Tehran to cooperate with the world powers' proposal during a telephone conversation yesterday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Diplomats say Gul also discussed the Iran issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by telephone yesterday.

''We hope Iran is aware that not escalating the problem is in its own interests,'' said Steinmeier, who flew to Ankara for a one-day visit after the Vienna talks.

Steinmeier said he believed Turkey and other countries in the region would continue to back the big powers in their drive to persuade Iran to cooperate over its nuclear programme.

He declined to give details about the proposal agreed. Apart from Steinmeier, the foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- attended the Vienna meeting.

The United States and its allies suspect Iran of wanting to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful, civilian purposes.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was on standby today to travel to Tehran to deliver the Vienna proposal, pending the result of contacts with Iran.

There has been no official reaction from Iran so far, though senior cleric Ahmad Khatami said today the Islamic state would not be intimidated into giving up its nuclear drive.

REUTERS DKS RK1830