Iran says open to "fair" talks over atomic plans

TEHRAN, Sep 28 (Reuters) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted today that Iran would not be deflected from its nuclear plans but said the Islamic Republic was ready for ''fair'' negotiations.

The president was speaking to a rally shortly after two days of talks in Berlin between Iranian and European Union negotiators ended without a deal. But both sides suggested there had been some progress without giving details.

Western nations, which suspect Iran is seeking to build atomic bombs, want Iran to suspend uranium enrichment before negotiations start on an incentives package backed by the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

Iran has rejected suspension as a precondition, but has indicated some flexibility once talks start.

''We support negotiations and talks in the framework of law and fair conditions and on the basis of defending the obvious right of the Iranian nation,'' Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech to a rally in Karaj, a city west of Tehran.

''They should know that the Iranian nation is determined to make use of nuclear energy and the Iranian nation has just just one cry ... ,'' he said, to which the crowd shouted: ''Nuclear energy is our obvious right.'' Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to producing electricity.

''Why are they insisting that we suspend our atomic work? Because they control the advertising network of the world and they want to tell the nations that they were right, and Iran wanted to produce nuclear weapons, and after that they would never let us continue our programmes,'' he said.

He said the West wanted to stop Iran's development.

Ahmadinejad has been a ardent voice against compromise in the nuclear row but the president is not the most powerful figure in Iran's system of clerical rule. The final say lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to consider ''new conditions'' to resolve the nuclear standoff but did not specify what those conditions were.

Reuters SP DB1917