Iran says UN nuclear referral "not constructive"

TEHRAN, July 16 (Reuters) Iran today said sending its nuclear file back to the UN Security Council undermined the prospect for talks over its atomic dispute with the West.

Iran's case was referred back to the council after Tehran failed to respond to a set of proposals backed by six world powers which called for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment in return for economic and diplomatic incentives.

Tehran publicly insists it wants to talk but has refused to give up enrichment. Western diplomats said Iran's top nuclear negotiator gave no sign he was interested in negotiating when he met the European Union foreign policy chief on Tuesday.

''We believe that the proposed package is a suitable and acceptable basis to work on, but we believe that this package ...

should be developed through talks,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a weekly news conference.

''The path of the Security Council is not a constructive path. The constructive path is holding talks ... If they refer the case to the Security Council, no matter what the (UN) resolution will be, it means that they have not adopted the path of talks,'' he said.

Five permanent Security Council members, the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, plus Germany offered Iran the nuclear package but on Wednesday asked the Security Council to intervene after Tehran failed to reply.

Iran says it will respond by August. 22.

The West says Iran wants to enrich uranium to produce atomic bombs, a charge Iran denies. Tehran insists its nuclear ambitions are purely civilian.

REUTERS SY PM1356