Iran seeks "comprehensive" nuclear solution-FM

PRETORIA, Aug 21 (Reuters) Iran has completed its consideration of Western demands that it halt nuclear enrichment and still hopes to reach a comprehensive solution to the impasse, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today.

''We have completed our considerations,'' Mottaki told reporters in South Africa's capital Pretoria, where he is holding two days of talks with South African officials.

''We hope, based on cooperation, negotiation, respecting the right of Iran to have nuclear technology and removing any questions, to catch a comprehensive solution (to the nuclear question).'' Mottaki did not elaborate and his spokesman declined to say if his comments meant Tehran had decided on proposals made by the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, which have offered incentives for Iran to suspend enrichment, a process that has military and civilian uses.

Iran says it will formally respond by tomorrow to the proposals, but officials have given no indication so far that it will accept the offer aimed at dispelling Western fears it wants to make atomic bombs.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today that Iran had decided to press ahead with its pursuit of nuclear technology, suggesting it will not heed the demands to stop enriching uranium.

Mottaki said Tehran initially welcomed the offer by the world powers, but that its doubts grew after the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna voted to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council.

''...Some specific countries tried to take the case to the Security Council and it created a real doubt,'' he said.

Mottaki thanked South Africa -- which has a seat on the board of the IAEA and friendly relations with Western powers and Tehran -- for urging a peaceful solution to the crisis.

South Africa, which in the waning years of apartheid voluntarily scrapped its own atomic arms programme, has said it supports Iran's right to develop peaceful nuclear technology under the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

''South Africa's position in relating to the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes by the Islamic Republic of Iran is well known and based on the NPT,'' Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said.

''We would like to urge all parties to avoid confrontation but to use negotiations to resolve this matter.'' REUTERS SP KN1725