Iran signals defiance ahead of IAEA meeting
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-18 20:50

MAJOR POWERS CONSIDER RESPONSE

EU3 officials were to meet the U.S. State Department's Nicholas Burns and Russian and Chinese officials for what a British spokesman said were part of recurrent consultations with the EU's major partners about concerns over Iran.

The EU and Washington want Iran referred to the Security Council. Russia and China, which have veto power on the body, have resisted. Moscow says referral would politicize the issue.

One EU3 official said it was unlikely a strong majority of countries on the 35-nation IAEA board would back a referral.

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli criticized Iran for the new conversion work but said Washington had not decided whether to push for a referral at the next board meeting.

"I would say that none of this inspires confidence in Iran. It contributes to the confidence gap and the trust deficit that we all have when looking at Iran's pattern of behavior over the last couple of years," he told reporters.

"And it certainly contravenes previous IAEA Board of Governors resolutions."

Participants in the London meeting were also expected to discuss a Russian proposal, tentatively approved by the EU3 and the United States, aimed at breaking the deadlock with Iran.

The plan would let Iran continue some nuclear fuel production on its soil, but would shift the most sensitive stage -- uranium enrichment -- to Russia.

Enrichment, the step that follows conversion, purifies uranium to the level needed to fuel power plants or, if enriched further, to the level needed to build a nuclear weapon.

"From the point of view of (Russian atomic agency) Rosatom, it is practicable, we can make it work," said a Rosatom source.

U.S. President George W. Bush has backed the initiative and some diplomats say ElBaradei could go to Iran to pursue it.

But it is unclear whether Iran, in a period of political uncertainty since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August, would accept the plan.

Some Western diplomats think the Iranians might consider it, but would insist on their right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to develop atomic power.

So far, Iran has declared its determination to enrich uranium on its own territory.