Iran sets date for nuclear research despite EU appeal

Saturday's announcement came despite appeals for restraint from the European Union and warnings of a possible UN Security Council referral from Washington.

"The inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are in Tehran to remove the seals on the research centres Monday or Tuesday," the spokesman of Iran's top security body, Hossein Entezami, told AFP.

"Our research activities will be under the supervision of the agency's cameras."

An IAEA spokeswoman in Vienna said the UN agency had received a letter from Iran, but they were still seeking more information.

"We received some information in a letter from Iran. It did not satisfy our information requirements, we still need information in more details," the agency's spokeswoman Melissa Flemming told AFP.

The agency expected to receive as soon as Saturday evening another letter from Tehran explaining in more detail their intentions, she added.

Earlier an IAEA spokesman said the agency's inspectors were in Iran "on a routine basis."

Austria, the current holders of the European Union's rotating presidency, called on Iran not to resume its nuclear research as planned, as it would violate IAEA resolutions and jeopardize any resumption of talks with the bloc, which were broken off last August.

"The EU regrets that Iran has chosen to announce this unilateral move at a moment when international confidence in the peaceful nature of its programme is far from restored," a statement said.

"It finds it surprising and unreasonable that Iran proposes to do this at a moment when ... Britain, France and Germany with the EU were exploring with Iran the possibility of a return to negotiations."

Washington had warned Thursday that it would consider seeking Iran's referral to the UN Security Council if it went ahead with renewed research.

"If negotiations have been exhausted, we have the votes, there is a resolution sitting there on the Security Council, we'll vote it," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The wrangle over the resumption of fuel cycle research overshadowed the launch of talks with a Russian delegation Saturday on a proposed compromise on Iran's desire to resume uranium enrichment.

"The Russian delegation has started talks about joint enrichment on Russian territory and also enrichment on Iranian soil," the spokesman of Iran's top security body, Hossein Entezami, was quoted as saying.

Russian media said the delegation included deputy foreign minister Sergei Kisliak, security council deputy secretary Valentin Sobolev, and representatives of the Russian atomic energy organization Rosatom.

Moscow is proposing that Tehran carry out uranium enrichment on its territory to allay Western fears that the technology could allow Iran to produce a nuclear bomb.

Both the European Union and the United States have backed the proposal in principle.

But Iranian officials have blown hot and cold about the proposed compromise, first suggesting that they might consider it and then insisting that they would do so only if any deal explicitly recognized its right to carry out enrichment on Iranian soil.

"If it says that enrichment can only happen in Russia, it's not acceptable," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Tuesday.

"But if it's a parallel and complementary plan we will consider that."

Asefi said talks with the Russians were necessary to discuss what he described as "ambiguities" in the plan.

"It's not a structured proposal it is still an idea, we have to discuss it," he said.

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