US supports allowing US firm to fix Iran's planes

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) Despite pressing for UN sanctions against Tehran, the Bush administration is considering allowing a US firm to export spare parts to repair Iranian planes, the State Department said.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US Departments of State and Commerce told Congress last Friday of their intent to recommend the US Treasury allow a US company to export parts to fix Iranian planes.

It was not immediately clear how long it would take for such a license to be granted and the company was not named.

The license would allow for the export of spare and replacement parts and technical data for the repair and overhaul of a ''limited number'' of US-made turbine engines on Airbus aircraft operated by Iran Air, said McCormack.

''The (State) Department's recommendation is based on an airworthiness warning issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that calls for the immediate overhaul of these engines,'' said McCormack.

In accordance with US law, none of the exports would go directly to Iran and all of the repairs would be performed in third countries.

Western nations had offered to sell Iran new planes and spare parts as part of an incentives package offered earlier this year aimed at getting Tehran to halt its nuclear program.

McCormack said the department had decided to ask for the license because of concerns associated with the FAA's warning and the air safety threat posed by the operation of these planes.

''Our recommendation is consistent with the US government's commitment to promote international safety-of-flight standards and ensure the safety of all aviation passengers, including the citizens of Iran,'' said McCormack.

The United States is at loggerheads with Iran over its nuclear program and Tehran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment, which Washington and its allies says is aimed at building a bomb but Iran argues is for civilian power use.

''Through its support for terrorism and pursuit of a nuclear weapons program in defiance of its international obligations, the Iranian regime continues to subordinate the Iranian people's interests to its own extremist agenda,'' said McCormack.

Today, political directors from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are set to discuss a series of sanctions against Iran for failing to meet an August 31 deadline to give up its enrichment program.

McCormack said the decision to ask for a license to export aircraft parts for Iranian aircraft was in line with the Bush administration's commitment of using sanctions to ''target the regime and not the Iranian people.'' REUTERS DH BST0810