Iran could answer nuclear offer on Friday: report

By Hashem Kalantari

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran signaled it could respond as early as Friday to incentives offered by six world powers to try to entice Tehran to stop enriching uranium they fear could result in a nuclear bomb.

State radio said Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, spoke to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana by telephone and they agreed to hold more talks later this month.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's response to the letter by the foreign ministers of the six countries ... will be given today," Jalili was quoted as telling the European Union's top diplomat.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki was earlier quoted by Iranian media as saying Tehran's response to the incentives package would be sent to Solana and the six powers' foreign ministers "in the course of the days to come."

The offer of economic and other incentives proposed by the six - the United States, China, Russia, Germany, Britain and France - was presented to Iran by Solana on June 14 in a bid to resolve a long-running dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The letter Jalili referred to formed part of the incentives package presented by Solana and was signed by the sextet's foreign ministers. His comments did not make clear how Iran would hand over its response and how detailed it would be.

The package says formal negotiations on the offer can start as soon as Iran suspends uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.

BUYING TIME?

It is a revised version of an offer spurned by Iran in 2006, which included civilian nuclear cooperation as well as wider trade in aircraft, energy, high technology and agriculture.

Iran has previously said it was willing to hold talks on the offer, but has ruled out halting sensitive nuclear work the West suspects had military aims, a charge Tehran denies.

Jalili said Iran, which has earlier presented its own package of proposals aimed at defusing the row, had prepared its response by concentrating on common ground between the two sides and with a constructive and creative outlook.

Analysts and diplomats say they detect a softer tone from Iran towards the nuclear incentives offer, but that this may be a bid to buy time rather than a shift to accept world powers' key demand of a halt to uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium can be used as fuel for power plants but also, if refined much more, provide material for nuclear bombs.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, says its nuclear program is solely aimed at generating electricity so that it can sell more of its oil and gas.

An Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters last month, said time was on Iran's side.