Iran's talks with world powers to start next month

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki looks on during a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu (not pictured) in Tehran September 12, 2009.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran and six world powers seeking to defuse a protracted standoff over Tehran's nuclear program will start talks on October 1, in what a senior U.S. official described as an "important first step."

A senior Iranian official said Iran would not negotiate on its "sovereign right" to nuclear energy but, if that were recognized, Iran was ready to discuss any issue at the talks, including ways of upholding non-proliferation globally.

In Vienna, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran's continued refusal of IAEA access to clarify intelligence material suggesting Iran illicitly researched how to design a nuclear weapon was unacceptable.

But he urged the U.N. Security Council to give his U.N. watchdog more legal inspections authority to better prevent the spread of atomic bomb technology, not to rely on sanctions he said often did not work.

Mohamed ElBaradei's call was a clear reference to the case of Iran, which is expanding a declared civilian uranium enrichment program without clarifying allegations of covert military dimensions to the activity.

But the chief U.S. delegate, in contrast with ElBaradei's message, said any nuclear outlaws must face "serious consequences" at the Security Council, an allusion to the West's mooted option of harsher sanctions if the talks fizzle.

"Failure to impose meaningful consequences puts at risk everything we have achieved (with non-proliferation rules). We cannot let this happen," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday the time had come for tougher sanctions against Iran.

"If not now then when? These harsh sanctions can be effective," Netanyahu was quoted by a parliamentary official as telling a legislative committee. Israel, Iran's arch enemy, is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Netanyahu's comments seemed to signal that it had not written off international diplomacy to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions, despite much speculation that the Jewish state could opt for last-ditch air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.

SOLANA, JALILI AGREE OCT. 1 TALKS

A spokeswoman for European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana confirmed that he had talked to Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili by phone and they had agreed on a meeting on October 1.

Solana has been representing the six powers -- the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia -- in long-running efforts to resolve the row with Iran.

The West suspects Iran is seeking the means to produce bombs, not just fuel for nuclear power plants as it says.

Iran last week turned over a package of proposals to the world powers in which it said it was willing to address global nuclear disarmament and other international issues.

The document did not touch on Iran's own enrichment program, under special IAEA scrutiny due to past secrecy and continued restrictions on inspections, and Iranian officials made clear it would not be up for negotiation.

"There is no room to bargain on (our) sovereign right but once it comes to discussions, everybody is free to pose any questions they wish," Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's nuclear energy agency, told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. atomic agency's annual meeting of 150 member states.

Salehi said Iran favored unconditional dialogue and "it seems the environment now is conducive...

"No country really bargains on its sovereign rights...," he said. "But this does not mean that within a larger framework discussing nuclear issues - disarmament, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, non-proliferation -- these are all issues which are of concern to everybody internationally."

"(The planned talks are) an important first step and we are hoping for the best," U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu told reporters separately outside the IAEA gathering.

Foreign Minister Carl Bildt of Sweden, which now holds the European Union presidency, said "the meeting itself is a positive step, yes, but how positive a step remains to be seen."

Iranian media said the venue had yet to be decided. Turkey has indicated it would be prepared to host the talks, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said on Sunday.

The United States said earlier it would accept Iran's offer of talks despite Tehran's stated refusal to address its own nuclear work, making clear it would raise the issue anyway.

The six powers offered Iran trade and diplomatic incentives in 2006 in exchange for a halt to uranium enrichment. They improved the offer last year but retained the suspension demand, something Tehran has repeatedly ruled out as a precondition.

Refined uranium is used as fuel for atomic power plants but, if enriched to a higher degree, provides material for bombs.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Reza Derakhshi in Tehran, Mark Heinrich and Sylvia Westall in Vienna, and Brussels bureau; Editing by Louise Ireland)