Iran says ready to negotiate on nuclear incentives

Two men sit next to a picture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as they puff on a water pipe and wait for customers at a traditional tea house in Isfahan, 450 km (280 miles) south of Tehran June 17, 2008. Picture taken on June 17, 2008.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it was ready to negotiate over a new package of economic incentives put forward by major powers seeking to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear work.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in the Ugandan capital Kampala that the six -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- should also take a serious look at Tehran's own proposals.

"We have informed them of our readiness to negotiate. The package given by the P5+1 countries is currently under consideration and at the appropriate time Teheran will give its reactions," Mottaki said.

"We also have what we call the Iranian package which we have sent to the P5+1 countries and we hope they consider it as we consider theirs," added Mottaki, who was in Uganda for a meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

The EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana, presented Tehran on Saturday with a new package of economic benefits designed to persuade it to curb its nuclear work and said Iran should stop uranium enrichment during negotiations to implement the offer.

Iran said on Tuesday uranium enrichment was its "red line" and would continue despite the enhanced offer of incentives.

The package is a revised version of one rejected by Iran in 2006. Western powers, which who suspect Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as cover to build an atomic bomb, have told Iran it will face more sanctions if it spurns the offer.

As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran insists it has the right to master the complete nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment, for peaceful purposes. It says it wants nuclear power only to generate electricity.

Mottaki said the United States should stop lecturing Iran on its nuclear ambitions.

"America is not in the position to be happy or unhappy with our peaceful nuclear activities. It is a country that is currently testing a fifth-generation nuclear bomb," he said.

"America should limit itself to its borders and stop interfering with other nations. The time for ordering other nations is over. We will continue to realize our rights definitely, " he added.

The incentives package offers Iran the chance to develop a civilian nuclear program with light water reactors -- seen as harder to divert into bomb-making than the technology Tehran is now developing -- and legally binding fuel supply guarantees.

It also offers trade and other benefits, including the possibility of Iran buying civil aircraft from the West.

(Reporting by Frank Nyakairu and Wangui Kanina; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)