Iran ties enrichment halt to fuel import guarantee

By Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran would consider stopping sensitive uranium enrichment if guaranteed a supply of nuclear fuel from abroad, an Iranian official suggested on Thursday.

For that to happen, U.N. inspectors would have to verify Iran's disputed nuclear program is wholly peaceful and a range of international sanctions against Tehran be lifted. There is little prospect of either on the horizon.

Iran has previously brushed off big power offers of an assured foreign fuel supply, possibly via a production center under the impartial control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), if it renounced enrichment.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, said the reason why the Islamic Republic was enriching uranium was the lack of an legally binding international accord on security of fuel supply.

Asked if with such a deal Iran would shelve enrichment, he said that arrangement would be a first step but it would have to be implemented, and Iran would need to retain some enrichment as a contingency in case supplies were cut.

"This is a first step ..., then the next step is to see it really implemented," he told reporters at a Brussels conference.

If this were carried out, "then Iran would be able to reconsider the position that we have now. The situation would be different, we would have to see," Soltanieh said.

"Plus every country has to be cautious to have as a contingency plan a fuel reserve in case of interruption."

BOMB POTENTIAL

Iran is trying to master nuclear fuel-cycle technology that could yield electricity -- its stated goal -- or give it the capability to make atom bombs if the process is adjusted, which Western powers suspect is Tehran's underlying purpose.

Tehran has defied U.N. resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment and withheld cooperation needed to resolve a U.N. nuclear watchdog probe into whether it researched ways to build bombs. Iran denies the charges but not given backup evidence.

Soltanieh also said the West was trying to humiliate Iran by seeking to prevent it doing nuclear research and development.

Speaking at a think-tank in New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran would not be dragged down an "unending road" in dealings with the IAEA, adding Washington was perpetuating a "huge lie" about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"For the United States, it is difficult to accept the peaceful nature of Iran's program because once it accepts, it can no longer oppose," Mottaki told the Asia Society.

Iran says it has no intention of making atom bombs, noting its commitment to continued IAEA inspections of nuclear sites.