EU, Iran to discuss nuclear programme standoff

ANKARA, Apr 25 (Reuters) The EU returns to talks with Iran today to see if Tehran might be ready to suspend nuclear activity after being hit with more sanctions, but Iranian leaders vowed not to retreat under world pressure.

Iran's top negotiator, arriving for talks with the European Union foreign policy chief, said ''irrational'' Western preconditions -- an allusion to calls for a halt to all Iranian uranium enrichment activity -- had thwarted a solution so far.

''That's why there are other, new ideas. We are supposed to be introduced (to them). That's why we are here,'' Ali Larijani told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara, shortly before his first session with the EU's Javier Solana in two months.

Larijani did not elaborate. The talks are expected to start at 1430 ist, diplomats said.

After a string of futile EU-Iran contacts, there have been diplomatic hints the two sides could entertain a face-saving compromise based on a partial or temporary suspension of Iran's programme to enrich uranium.

They surfaced again this week, prompting Washington to deny that Western powers were edging away from the U.N. Security Council resolution they engineered calling for a complete moratorium as a precondition for negotiations on a solution.

An EU diplomat described the fresh media report of Western preparedness to accept a limited suspension as ''ridiculous''.

The United States has accused arch-foe Iran of harbouring a secret nuclear arms programme. Tehran says its enrichment work is only for electricity production and is vital for its economy.

Solana's aides said he would encourage Larijani at the talks to accept a ''double suspension'' -- a halt to all enrichment-related activity in exchange for a shelving of action to implement Security Council sanctions.

That is the Council's formula for jump-starting negotiations on trade incentives offered to Iran not to pursue enrichment.

ENRICHMENT BUNKER While Iran has offered to explore how to guarantee no military diversion of nuclear materials, it has ruled out shutting down its expanding enrichment effort in a vast bunker shielded by nti-aircraft guns against a feared US attack.

European Union officials said Solana's Ankara trip was worthwhile to give another chance to negotiations and emphasised the EU's ''dual track'' strategy of balancing the sticks of sanctions with the carrot of trade benefits via negotiations.

On the eve of the talks Solana voiced hope for Iranian 'openness'' to finding common ground for serious negotiations to resolve the volatile standoff.

Tehran says the programme is irreversible and the West should now accept it as a member of the nuclear club.

Iran says it must enrich uranium for power generation so it can export more of its huge oil and gas reserves. If refined to high levels, uranium can also constitute the core of atom bombs.

Tehran said this month it had launched more than 1,300 centrifuges and begun feeding them with uranium for enrichment, but diplomats said it was ''test-scale'' and nowhere near the ''industrial-scale'' capacity it proclaimed on April 9.

Diplomats familiar with inspections by the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), say Tehran will not master major enrichment technology for several years at least.

''If the (West) really wants to block progress (towards an Iranian bomb), it is easy enough to do -- just start negotiating without preconditions, and let Iran save face and keep a small enrichment programme, with the IAEA monitoring,'' one said.

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