Iran to UK: Don't cross "red lines" in atomic offer

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran told Britain not to cross any "red lines" when preparing incentives for the Islamic Republic aimed at ending a row with the West over Tehran's nuclear program, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday.

World powers met in London on Friday and said they would offer new incentives to encourage Iran to halt nuclear work which the West fears is aimed at building atomic bombs.

Iran refused the last such offer made in 2006 and officials have in the past described a demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program as a "red line". They say it is Iran's right to carry out such work and say the aim is peaceful.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr said he met his British counterpart, David Miliband, in Kuwait recently. Britain and Iran attended a multilateral meeting there on Iraq last month.

Miliband had said world powers would meet in May and planned to "write a letter" to Tehran, Mottaki said.

"I told him that 'You have used a word, and I think it is a forbidden word ... Don't pass those red lines. Be careful about that'," Mottaki said without saying what those "red lines" were.

Mottaki was speaking at a news conference with a visiting Yemeni minister broadcast and translated by Iran's Press TV.

"We have not received any letter in this connection," Mottaki was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying when asked about a new offer by the six world powers, comprising the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says it wants only to make fuel for power plants. The enrichment process, if desired, can also be used to make material for bombs.