Iran says near "united view" with EU in some areas

ANKARA, Apr 26 (Reuters) Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said today Iran and the European Union were approaching ''a united view'' in some areas of their atomic talks.

His comments followed talks yesterday with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in the Turkish capital Ankara in which both men recorded progress in reconciling what Iran calls its drive for nuclear power with Western fears it wants a bomb.

''In some areas we are approaching a united view.

This is to say that the best approach is to settle all the issues through negotiations based on law and international rules and regulations,'' Larijani told a joint news conference with Solana before they resumed their talks.

''The International Atomic Energy Agency inspections should remain in place and the Non-Proliferation Treaty should prevail.

These are good frameworks serving as focal points of unity in both sides' views,'' he said in comments translated from Farsi.

Iran and the EU are trying to end a standoff over Iran's uranium enrichment programme that the West fears could be used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Solana said the atmosphere of the talks was ''very good'', but declined to give any details at this stage.

''We have tried to understand each other better, and that without any doubt is a very fundamental part of the resolution of the problem - to understand each other's positions better,'' said Solana.

But he also cautioned that the Ankara talks constituted only preparatory work that could lead back to formal negotiations.

NO BREAKTHROUGH SEEN Earlier, Solana told reporters he did not expect a ''great breakthrough'' with Iran in the Ankara talks. The two men have agreed to meet again in two weeks.

One European Union diplomat, who declined to be named, said the key to a breakthrough was finding a face-saving way for Iran to curb enrichment.

Asked if he had discussed with Larijani a compromise on the enrichment dispute, Solana said: ''We discussed many things.'' The United States and other Western powers suspect Iran has a secret nuclear arms programme. Tehran says its enrichment work is only for electricity production and is vital for its economy.

Earlier this week, Iran had dampened hopes of any swift progress in Ankara by vowing not to stop enrichment despite growing UN sanctions pressure.

Larijani had said ''irrational'' Western preconditions -- a reference to calls for a halt to all enrichment activity -- had thwarted diplomatic efforts to head off what some fear could be a slide into a US-Iranian conflict.

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

That is the Council's formula to jump-start talks on trade incentives that major powers have offered Iran if it cooperates.

After a string of futile EU-Iran contacts stretching back almost a year, there have been diplomatic hints the two sides could entertain a compromise based on a partial or temporary suspension of Iran's programme.

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

Despite the positive signs Iran kept up hardline rhetoric, saying it would strike US interests around the world and Israel if attacked over its disputed nuclear programme.

''Nowhere would be safe for America with (Iran's) long-range missiles ... we can fire tens of thousands of missiles every day,'' Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr, deputy interior minister, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

REUTERS AM RK1405