Iran tells U.N. it wants new atomic fuel first: diplomats

Iranian atomic energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh is seen at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, 350 km (217 miles) south of Tehran, April 8, 2008.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog that it wants fresh nuclear fuel for a reactor in Tehran before it will agree to ship most of its enriched uranium stocks to Russia and France, diplomats said Friday.

In what the International Atomic Energy Agency has described as an initial response to an IAEA-drafted nuclear fuel proposal, Western diplomats said on condition of anonymity that major Western powers found the Iranian demand for immediate access to fresh atomic fuel unacceptable.

"The Iranians want to get enriched uranium fuel for their reactor first before they send it aboard, which simply isn't acceptable," a diplomat told Reuters. Another diplomat confirmed the remarks as accurate.

The diplomats said it was unclear whether the proposal was a serious one or if the Iranians were only trying to drag out the negotiating process.

The press office of Iran's U.N. mission was not immediately available for comment.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is in New York for a series of meetings at U.N. headquarters, also declined to comment on Iran when asked about Tehran's response by Reuters.

The IAEA proposal calls for Iran to transfer about 75 percent of its known 1.5 metric tons of low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates for a Tehran reactor that produces radio isotopes for cancer treatment.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Tehran earlier this week to accept the IAEA proposal, saying it would "constitute an important confidence-building measure."

Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and has refused to halt it. Western powers fear Iran is covertly developing atomic weapons.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Jackie Frank and Bill Trott)