Iran president to offer proposals in nuclear row

By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will soon put forward new proposals to resolve its dispute with the West over its nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

"There are various concerns in the world which big powers have no solutions for those international challenges but Iran has solutions," he told a news conference in Tehran.

"We have prepared a package which will soon be offered.

He said that no incentives offered by the West would persuade Iran to abandon its right to develop its nuclear program.

"What does incentives mean?, he said. "Iran is a big power and wants nothing more than its legal right to nuclear technology. Nothing can persuade us to abandon our right."

"We believe that the era of threats and sanctions has ended and it will have no impact on the Iranian nation's will to obtain nuclear energy," Ahmadinejad said.

The West fears Tehran is secretly trying to acquire nuclear arms under cover of a civilian program. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, insists its atomic work is to master skills to generate power.

Iran's nuclear ambitions have prompted three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006 for its refusal to halt its nuclear work.

Tehran has so far rejected to halt its uranium enrichment activities which can be used to make power plant fuel or material for bombs.

World powers are considering enhancing a package of trade and other incentives for Iran, previously proposed in 2006, if it stops enriching uranium. ( Reporting by Parisa hafezi, Editing by Samia Nakhoul)